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Next door to Kevin Street College there is a little public park consisting of St. Kevin's Church and Churchyard. I studied electronics and telecommunications for five years at Kevin Street college and I was totally unaware of the existence St. Kevin’s church until a few days ago. It is more than likely that it was not open to to the public until after I completed my studies.
St. Kevin's park is according to locals both haunted and cursed. I do not know if it is haunted by the people who had their gravestones moved, by the souls of the unclaimed victims of the great famine or the spirit of Archbishop Dermot O'Hurley who was horribly tortured before his death.
Arthur Wellesley, better know as the Duke of Wellington, was baptised in St. kevin’s Church..
The church is the burial place of Archbishop Dermot O'Hurley, who was interred here after his execution on 20 June 1584 at Hoggen Green. O'Hurley, ordained Archbishop of Cashel in 1581, was imprisoned and tortured by government authorities upon his return from Rome in 1583. His grave became a place of veneration for Roman Catholics for several hundred years. In 1609, in view of the throngs of pilgrims coming to his grave, the church was rebuilt and a new entrance was made.
In 1698, the time of the Penal Laws, the church was offered to the Huguenot community as a place of worship and cemetery. The graveyard continued to be used by Catholics until the end of the 19th century.
During the 17th and 18th centuries many notable people resident in the suburbs south of the city were interred here. After the Reformation, although a Protestant cemetery, it had come by custom to be used by Catholics and the Quakers.
People buried here include: Rev John Austin S.J. (1717–1784), a pioneer of Catholic education in Ireland, whose tomb was restored by Rev. Dr. John T. Laphen, of St. Catherines, Meath St. John Keogh (1740–1817), intimate friend of Theobald Wolfe Tone, who once owned the land where Mount Jerome Cemetery now stands. The Moore Family (of Thomas Moore). Jean Jasper Joly (1740–9 November 1823), captain of the Irish Volunteers in 1798.
At the start of the 19th century the cemetery, like many others in Dublin, became a target of the body-snatchers, although it was surrounded by high walls (changed to railings in the 1960s). In February 1830 a Frenchman named Nagles and his friend were attacked by a group of "sack-em-ups" lying in wait near the cemetery. The criminals' attention was diverted by the arrival of a cart-load of dead bodies, giving Nagles the opportunity to escape and notify the police at Arran Quay, who apprehended the culprits. On one occasion a body-snatcher was chased as far as Thomas Street, where he finally dropped his booty—the body of a young girl.
In June 1961 the body of a local five-year-old boy from Cuffe Street was found in the graveyard. Blood-stained stones found nearby indicated that he had been murdered, but despite an intensive investigation, the murderer was never discovered.
In a dystopian 1984, Winston Smith endures a squalid existence in the totalitarian superstate of Oceania under the constant surveillance of the Thought Police. The story takes place in London, the capital city of the territory of Airstrip One (formerly "either England or Britain").
Winston works in a small office cubicle at the Ministry of Truth, rewriting history in accordance with the dictates of the Party and its supreme figurehead, Big Brother. A man haunted by painful memories and restless desires, Winston is an everyman who keeps a secret diary of his private thoughts, thus creating evidence of his thoughtcrime — the crime of independent thought, contrary to the dictates and aims of the Party.
His life takes a fatal turn when he is accosted by a fellow Outer Party worker — a mysterious, bold-looking girl named Julia — and they begin an illicit affair. Their first meeting takes place in the remote countryside where they exchange subversive ideas before having sex. Shortly after, Winston rents a room above a pawn shop (in the supposedly safe proletarian area) where they continue their liaison. Julia — a sensual, free-spirited young woman — procures contraband food and clothing on the black market, and for a brief few months they secretly meet and enjoy an idyllic life of relative freedom and contentment together.
It comes to an end one evening, with the sudden raid of the Thought Police. They are both arrested and it's revealed that there is a telescreen hidden behind a picture on the wall in their room, and that the proprietor of the pawn shop, Mr. Charrington, is a covert agent of the Thought Police. Winston and Julia are taken away to be detained, questioned and brutally "rehabilitated", separately. Winston is brought to the Ministry of Love, where O'Brien, a high-ranking member of the Inner Party whom Winston had previously believed to be a fellow thoughtcriminal and agent of the resistance movement led by the archenemy of the Party, Emmanuel Goldstein, systematically tortured him.
O'Brien instructs Winston about the state's true purpose and schools him in a kind of catechism on the principles of doublethink — the practice of holding two contradictory thoughts in the mind simultaneously. For his final rehabilitation, Winston is brought to Room 101, where O'Brien tells him he will be subjected to the "worst thing in the world", designed specifically around Smith's personal phobias. When confronted with this unbearable horror — which turns out to be a cage filled with wild rats — Winston's psychological resistance finally and irretrievably breaks down, and he hysterically repudiates his allegiance to Julia. Now completely subjugated and purged of any rebellious thoughts, impulses, or personal attachments, Winston is restored to physical health and released.
In the final scene, Winston returns to the Chestnut Tree Café, where he had previously seen the rehabilitated thoughtcriminals Jones, Aaronson and Rutherford (themselves once prominent but later disgraced members of the Inner Party) who have since been "vaporized" and rendered unpersons. While sitting at the chess table, Winston is approached by Julia, who was similarly "rehabilitated". They share a bottle of Victory Gin and impassively exchange a few words about how they have betrayed each other. After she leaves, Winston watches a broadcast of himself on the large telescreen confessing his "crimes" against the state and imploring forgiveness of the populace.
Upon hearing a news report declaring the Oceanian army's utter rout of the enemy (Eurasian)'s forces in North Africa, Winston looks at the still image of Big Brother that appears on the telescreen, then turns away and almost silently says "I love you" - a phrase that he and Julia repeatedly used during their relationship, indicating the possibility that he still loves Julia. However, he could also be declaring his love for Big Brother instead. The novel unambiguously ends with the words: "He loved Big Brother," whereas the movie seems to deliberately allow for either interpretation. Earlier, during Winston's conversation with Julia in the rented room, he stated that "if they can make me change my feelings, they can stop me from loving you, that would be real betrayal". In the final scene, the "real betrayal" has therefore either been committed or averted, depending on whether the "you" that Winston loves is Big Brother or Julia.
The history of Elliston is not complete without reference to the Elliston Massacre of 1849. The first white people to traverse this region and come into contact with the local Aboriginal people were the men who comprised the exploration party of Edward John Eyre in 1839. Eyre’s account of the Peninsula with no rivers and not a lot of fresh water and Mallee scrub everywhere deterred even the pastoralists for many years. Only a few ventured beyond the Port Lincoln area in the 1840s and even into the 1850s. But some did and conflict with the local Aboriginal people resulted. Dr William Browne of the Booborowie run and others took out a pastoral lease for Talia station in the Lake Newland region in the late 1840s. He employed two brothers named Hamp to manage the station and he employed them as shepherds. According to legends and reports one Hamp brother was murdered by Aboriginal people on 23 June 1848 after several months of skirmishes and conflict. A neighbouring shepherd visited the hut and found it had been rifled and the body of John Hamp was lying a few yards from the hut. He reported the finding to his manager who just happened to be entertaining the local police trooper who had visited a ship wreck on the coast. Trooper Driver (and Resident Commissioner) inspected the hut and noticed that John Hamp had been waddied to death and his skull partly sawn in two by a hand saw. Aboriginal tracks were evident and followed by Police trooper Driver and the manager of the station for a day before they were lost. When the Resident (Commissioner) of Port Lincoln wrote his report in July he was critical of the Police for wasting time by trying to track the Aborigines when they should have returned to report the incident in Port Lincoln. Two Aboriginal men were apprehended and tried by the Resident of Port Lincoln one year later before being tried in the Supreme Court of South Australia where the sentence was upheld. They were sentenced to death but given a reprieve by Governor Young.
But following the trial the Resident of Port Lincoln recommended that police stations be established at Lake Hamilton and Franklin Harbour(Cowell). But the murder of Hamp was not the end of conflict. In August the Aboriginals attacked the area of Hamp’s hut again and one shepherd was speared and one Aboriginal shot. Another report followed and the police troopers and other station hands went out on a punitive trip but with no reported incidents emerging. Perhaps this is where the story of the “Elliston Massacre” emerged but not according to later government reports. Following two murders of white settlers in May of 1849 Inspector Tolmer (later the Police Commissioner) gathered a party of men and riders together to search for the culprits of these murders. They found four Aborigines who were suspected of being responsible for the two murders in May of 1849 and of John Hamp in June of 1848. They were tried in the Supreme Court of South Australia and convicted but given a reprieve from the death sentence. There was no official or police attempt to round up groups of Aboriginal people and drive them to their death but stories of a massacre emerged. The area that was named Waterloo Bay in 1865 was a popular camping spot for Aboriginal people in the 1840s. Aboriginal oral traditions tell of a massacre of a number of people in 1849 when white men tried to round up Aboriginal people accused of crimes. The Aboriginals’ story goes that the white expedition party found Aboriginal people near a lake south of what is now Elliston. As the Aboriginal people fled some were followed through the scrub towards the coast. Shots were fired and several Aboriginal people were killed. When the white horsemen reached the top of the cliffs the group they were following had disappeared. It was presumed that some Aboriginal people had jumped 150 feet to their deaths into the ocean. There were no official reports on this expedition which is unusual to say the least for 1849 when all incidents with Aboriginal people were reported to the police, the Resident of Port Lincoln and/or the Protector of Aborigines in Adelaide. In fact the Protector of Aborigines Mr Moorhouse travelled to Port Lincoln to hear abolut the search for the murderers first hand in June 1849. Perhaps some Aboriginal people had heard stories of Police Inspector Tolmer and his party looking for murderers and translated that into a major punitive expedition with drastic results for a large group of people. The government was always assiduous about protecting the legal rights of Aborigines even if they did not treat them well. But the lack of any government or official report does not mean that such a punitive expedition by white men did not occur but there is no way that it would have been Inspector Tolmer’s party. A local pastoralist of Lake Newland Mr Horne also led a punitive expedition against Aboriginal people in 1849 and this incident is more likely to have been the basis of the coastal Elliston Massacre. The first written report of an Elliston Massacre appeared in an Adelaide newspaper in 1880 with the story presented by someone who only gave their initials. Since then it has been repeated many times but with little real evidence to support the existence of a massacre. But whether or not a massacre occurred there were certainly numerous incidents of conflict between white settlers and Aboriginal people but they were usually reported to the police and investigated by the authorities. Deaths occurred among white settlers and Aboriginal people before violence subsided after the Hamp and other murder trails of 1849. The number of Aboriginal people killed is impossible to enumerate precisely. In 2018 the Elliston community erected a monument to the massacre so that it will never be forgotten by present day Australians.
"Dan, do you realize we just witnessed a portion of your wife's previous existence, and her death in that existence?" -- Dr. Carl Reiner
“That marriage license cost me six bucks — you know, I can buy six wives for that in the middle of Africa.” -- Dan Fuller
Bride and the Beast , The
Allied Artists Pictures - 78 min
23 February 1958, Los Angeles ( RKO Hill Street )
Produced by Adrian Weiss and Louis Weiss
Director: Adrian Weiss
Screenplay: Edward D. Wood Jr.,
Original Story: Adrian Weiss
Stars: Charlotte Austin, Lance Fuller and Johnny Roth
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The Bride and the Beast @ American Film Institute
Note: The working title of the film was Queen of the Gorillas .
Production Date: early Jan 1957
Premiere Information: San Diego opening: 29 Jan 1958
Release Date: Mar 1958
>> EXTENSIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY
www.afi.com/members/catalog/DetailView.aspx?s=&Movie=...
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WATCH ONLINE >>
The Bride and the Beast - trailer
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GpQv95V5CQ
CLIPS
Bride and the Beast
www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHrClNjZCRU
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DVD >> BUY Online >> Bride and the Beast , The
www.amazon.com/Bride-Beast-Charlotte-Austin/dp/B0000687F7
AND
www.amazon.com/Bride-Beast-White-Gorilla/dp/B000MV8AFE
AND
www.moviesunlimited.com/musite/product.asp?sku=D35515
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shop.tcm.com/product.asp?sku=D35515
AND
www.oldies.com/product-view/5955GD.html
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REVIEW---Boxoffice Magazine - February 17, 1958
www.boxofficemagazine.com/the_vault/issue_page?issue_id=1...
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NEWSPAPER AD - Bride and the Beast , The
February 1958, Los Angeles ( RKO Hill Street )
www.flickr.com/photos/gorillamen/4471892311/
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POSTER, theatrical ( original ) - Bride and the Beast , The
www.wrongsideoftheart.com/2009/08/the-bride-and-the-beast...
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movielove.tumblr.com/post/175006220/theniftyfifties-the-b...
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Edward D. Wood Jr.
Ed Wood
Edward Davis Wood, Jr. (October 10, 1924 – December 10, 1978)
AND
AND
www.imdb.com/name/nm0000248/miscsites
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WATCH ONLINE >>
The Haunted World of Edward D. Wood Jr. (1995)
89 min - Documentary
>> Watch now >>
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIBNWqfQV_k
AND
****
Ed Wood: Look Back in Angora (Video 1994)
51 min - Documentary
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CHARLOTTE AUSTIN
" Her 1958 film The Bride and the Beast (1958),
written by Edward D. Wood Jr., was released on DVD, newly remastered, in the spring of 2002 by Retromedia. VCI's later DVD release of the movie featured an audio commentary with Austin, supporting player Slick Slavin, gorilla movie expert Bob Burns and interviewer Tom Weaver. "
www.imdb.com/name/nm0042349/bio
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CHARLOTTE AUSTIN @ The Astounding B Monster
" Maybe the last thing Charlotte Austin would want to be remembered as is "Queen of the Gorillas." That was the working title of the film for which she may be known best, The Bride and the Beast. Exploitation filmmaker Adrian Weiss commissioned Hollywood fringe-dweller Ed Wood to script the low-budget shocker, in which Charlotte plays a newlywed whose simian genes beckon her to return to the jungle and abandon her understandably confused husband.
But there's more to Charlotte Austin than her brief film career would lead you to believe. She was named for the North Carolina city in which she was born, the daughter of Gene Austin, one of popular music's most unjustly underrated entertainers. Austin's recordings gave rise to the "crooning" craze that made stars of Crosby, Sinatra, Dick Haymes and many others. He also wrote numerous songs that have become pop music standards, My Blue Heaven and Lonesome Road among them. (Gene Austin died in 1972.)...
www.bmonster.com/profile32.html
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in
The Astounding B Monster Book [Paperback]
Marty Baumann
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0972858547/qid=111...
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CHARLOTTE AUSTIN @ Glamour Girls of the Silver Screen - Biography and Photos
www.glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen.com/show.php?id=16
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CHARLOTTE AUSTIN @ Spooky Tom's Nightmare Mansion
www.spookytoms.com/Charlotte_Austin_Tribute.html
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CHARLOTTE AUSTIN @ " It Came from Horrorwood:
Interviews with Moviemakers in the Science Fiction and Horror Tradition "
By Tom Weaver [Paperback] McFarland & Company (October 2004)
www.amazon.com/Came-Horrorwood-Interviews-Moviemakers-Tra...
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www.oldies.com/product-view/BK9503.html
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www.angusrobertson.com.au/book/it-came-from-horrorwood-in...
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www.powells.com/biblio?isbn=0786420693
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Return to Forever is a jazz fusion group founded and led by keyboardist Chick Corea. Through its existence, the band has cycled through a number of different members, with the only consistent band mate of Corea's being bassist Stanley Clarke. However in 1972, after having become a disciple of Scientology, Corea decided that he wanted to better ;communicate; with the audience. This essentially translated into his performing a more popularly accessible style of music, since avant-garde jazz enjoyed a relatively small audience.
First group (1972-1973) The first edition of Return to Forever performed primarily Latin-oriented music. Clarke himself became involved in Scientology through Corea, but eventually left the sect in the early 1980s.
Their first album, titled simply Return to Forever, was recorded for ECM Records in 1972 and was initially released only in Europe. Their second album, Light as a Feather (1973), was released by Polydor and included the song, Spain, which also became quite well-known.
Jazz rock era (1973-1976) guitarist Bill Connors, drummer Steve Gadd and percussionist Mingo Lewis were added.. Lenny White (who had played with Corea in Miles Davis's band) then replaced Gadd and Lewis on drums and percussion, and the group's third album, Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy (1973), was then rerecorded.
The nature of the group's music had by now completely changed into jazz-rock, Their music was still relatively melodic, relying on strong themes, but the traditional jazz element was by this time almost entirely absent- replaced by a more direct, rock oriented approach. Over-driven, distorted guitar had also become prominent in the band's new sound, and Clarke had by then switched almost completely to electric bass guitar. A replacement on vocals was not hired, and all the songs were now instrumentals. This change did not lead to a decrease in the band's commercial fortunes however, Return to Forever's jazz rock albums instead found their way onto US pop album charts.
While their second jazz rock album, Where Have I Known You Before, (1974) was similar in style to its immediate predecessor, Corea now played synthesizers in addition to electric keyboards (including piano), and Clarke's playing had evolved considerably- now using flange and fuzz-tone effects, and with his now signature style beginning to emerge. the then 19-year-old guitar prodigy Al Di Meola, who had also played on the album recording sessions joined.
Their following album, No Mystery (1975), was recorded with the same line-up as "Where Have I Known You Before", but the style of music had become more varied. The first side of the record consisted primarily of jazz-funk, while the second side featured Corea's acoustic title track and a long composition with a strong Spanish influence. On this and the following album, each member of the group composed at least one of the tracks. No Mystery went on to win the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance by a Group.
The final album by this longest-lasting lineup of the group was Romantic Warrior (1976), which had by this time left Polydor for Columbia Records. This album would go on to become the best selling of all Return to Forever's efforts, eventually reaching gold disc status. Romantic Warrior continued their experiments in the realms of jazz-rock and related musical genres, and was lauded by critics for both the technically demanding style of its compositions as well as for its accomplished musicianship.
After the release of Romantic Warrior and Return To Forever's subsequent tour in support (as well as having in addition signed a multi-million dollar contract with CBS), Corea shocked Clarke by deciding to change the lineup of the group and to not include either White or Di Meola
Final album (1977)
The final incarnation of Return to Forever featured a four piece horn section and Corea's wife Gayle singing vocals, but recorded only one studio album, Musicmagic (1977).After Musicmagic, Chick Corea officially disbanded the group.
Reunion (2008) The classic Return to Forever line-up of Corea, Clarke, White, and Di Meola reunited for a tour of the United States that began in the summer of 2008. 2011 tour From February 2011, the group commences a world tour in Australia. The line-up, billed as Return to Forever IV, is Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Lenny White, Frank Gambale and Jean-Luc Ponty.
First group (1972-1973) The first edition of Return to Forever performed primarily Latin-oriented music. This initial band consisted of singer (and occasional percussionist) Flora Purim, her husband Airto Moreira on drums and percussion, Corea's longtime musical co-worker Joe Farrell on saxophone and flute, and the young Stanley Clarke on bass. Within this first line-up in particular, Clarke played acoustic double bass in addition to electric bass. Corea's electric piano formed the basis of this group's sound, but Clarke and Farrell were given ample solo space themselves. While Purim's vocals lent some commercial appeal to the music, many of their compositions were also instrumental and somewhat experimental in nature. The music was composed by Corea with the exception of the title track of the second album which was written by Stanley Clarke. Lyrics were often written by Corea's friend Neville Potter, and were quite often scientology themed- though this is not readily apparent to those not involved in Scientology itself. Clarke himself became involved in Scientology through Corea, but eventually left the sect in the early 1980s.
Their first album, titled simply Return to Forever, was recorded for ECM Records in 1972 and was initially released only in Europe. Their second album, Light as a Feather (1973), was released by Polydor and included the song, Spain, which also became quite well-known.
Jazz rock era (1973-1976) guitarist Bill Connors, drummer Steve Gadd and percussionist Mingo Lewis were added. However, Gadd was unwilling to tour with the band and risk his job as an in-demand session drummer. Lenny White (who had played with Corea in Miles Davis's band) replaced Gadd and Lewis on drums and percussion, and the group's third album, Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy (1973), was then rerecorded (the first recording, featuring Gadd on drums, was never released and has since disappeared).
The nature of the group's music had by now completely changed into jazz-rock, Their music was still relatively melodic, relying on strong themes, but the traditional jazz element was by this time almost entirely absent- replaced by a more direct, rock oriented approach. Over-driven, distorted guitar had also become prominent in the band's new sound, and Clarke had by then switched almost completely to electric bass guitar. A replacement on vocals was not hired, and all the songs were now instrumentals. This change did not lead to a decrease in the band's commercial fortunes however, Return to Forever's jazz rock albums instead found their way onto US pop album charts.
While their second jazz rock album, Where Have I Known You Before, (1974) was similar in style to its immediate predecessor, Corea now played synthesizers in addition to electric keyboards (including piano), and Clarke's playing had evolved considerably- now using flange and fuzz-tone effects, and with his now signature style beginning to emerge. After Bill Connors left the band to concentrate on his solo career, the group also hired new guitarists. Although Earl Klugh played guitar for some of the group's live performances, he was soon replaced by the then 19-year-old guitar prodigy Al Di Meola, who had also played on the album recording sessions.
Their following album, No Mystery (1975), was recorded with the same line-up as "Where Have I Known You Before", but the style of music had become more varied. The first side of the record consisted primarily of jazz-funk, while the second side featured Corea's acoustic title track and a long composition with a strong Spanish influence. On this and the following album, each member of the group composed at least one of the tracks. No Mystery went on to win the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance by a Group.
The final album by this longest-lasting "classic" lineup of the group was Romantic Warrior (1976), which had by this time left Polydor for Columbia Records. This album would go on to become the best selling of all Return to Forever's efforts, eventually reaching gold disc status. "Romantic Warrior" continued their experiments in the realms of jazz-rock and related musical genres, and was lauded by critics for both the technically demanding style of its compositions as well as for its accomplished musicianship.
After the release of Romantic Warrior and Return To Forever's subsequent tour in support (as well as having in addition signed a multi-million dollar contract with CBS), Corea shocked Clarke by deciding to change the lineup of the group and to not include either White or Di Meola
Final album (1977)
The final incarnation of Return to Forever featured a four piece horn section and Corea's wife Gayle singing vocals, but recorded only one studio album, Musicmagic (1977).After Musicmagic, Chick Corea officially disbanded the group.
Reunion (2008)
The classic Return to Forever line-up of Corea, Clarke, White, and Di Meola reunited for a tour of the United States that began in the summer of 2008. 2011 tour
From February 2011, the group commences a world tour in Australia. The line-up, billed as Return to Forever IV, is Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Lenny White, Frank Gambale and Jean-Luc Ponty
The Ayutthaya Historical Park (Thai: อุทยานประวัติศาสตร์พระนครศรีอยุธยา (Pronunciation)) covers the ruins of the old city of Ayutthaya, Thailand. The city of Ayutthaya was founded by King Ramathibodi I in 1350:222 The city was captured by the Burmese in 1569; though not pillaged, it lost "many valuable and artistic objects.":42–43 It was the capital of the country until its destruction by the Burmese army in 1767.
In 1969 the Fine Arts Department began with renovations of the ruins, which became more serious after it was declared a historical park in 1976. A part of the park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991. Thirty-five kings ruled the Ayutthaya kingdom during its existence. King Narai (1656-1688) held court not only in Ayutthaya but also from his palace in the nearby city of Lopburi, from where he ruled 8–9 months in the year.
PARK SITES
Wat Chaiwatthanaram
Wat Kasatrathiraj
Wat Kudi Dao
Wat Lokayasutharam
Wat Mahathat
Wat Phanan Choeng
Wiharn Phra Mongkhon Bopit
Wat Phra Ram
Wat Phra Sri Sanphet
Wat Ratchaburana, Ayutthaya
Wat Chai Mongkhon
Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon
Phra Chedi Suriyothai
Ayutthaya historical Study Centre
Japanese Settlement
Wat Phu Khao Thong
Elephant Camp
UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE
In 1991, a part of Ayutthaya Historical Park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site under criteria III as an excellent witness to the period of development of a true national Thai art. The inscribed area covered only 289 ha on central and southwest part of Ayutthaya island; as a result, only certain groups of historical sites are under UNESCO protection. The sites including Wat Ratchaburana, Wat Mahathat, Wat Phra Sri Sanphet, Wat Phra Ram and Wiharn Phra Mongkhon Bopit. The sites that are not part of World Heritage Sites are the sites outside Ayutthaya Island; for example, Wat Yai Chai Mongkon, Wat Phanan Choeng, Wat Chaiwatthanaram and Wat Phu Khao Thong.
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AYUTTHAYA
(/ɑːˈjuːtəjə/; Thai: อยุธยา, Thai pronunciation: [ʔajúttʰajaː]; also spelled Ayudhya) was a Siamese kingdom that existed from 1351 to 1767. Ayutthaya was friendly towards foreign traders, including the Chinese, Vietnamese, Indians, Japanese and Persians, and later the Portuguese, Spaniards, Dutch and French, permitting them to set up villages outside the walls of the capital, also called Ayutthaya.
In the sixteenth century, it was described by foreign traders as one of the biggest and wealthiest cities in the East. The court of King Narai (1656–88) had strong links with that of King Louis XIV of France, whose ambassadors compared the city in size and wealth to Paris.
By 1550, the kingdom's vassals included some city-states in the Malay Peninsula, Sukhothai, and parts of Cambodia.
In foreign accounts, Ayutthaya was called Siam, but many sources say the people of Ayutthaya called themselves Tai, and their kingdom Krung Tai "The Tai country" (กรุงไท).
HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
ORIGINS
According to the most widely accepted version of its origin, the Thai state based at Ayutthaya in the valley of the Chao Phraya River rose from the earlier, nearby Lavo Kingdom (at that time, still under the control of the Khmer Empire) and Suvarnabhumi. One source says that in the mid-fourteenth century, due to the threat of an epidemic, King Uthong moved his court south into the rich floodplain of the Chao Phraya River onto an island surrounded by rivers. The name of the city indicates the influence of Hinduism in the region as it is the Thai pronunciation of the famous Indian city of Ayodhya. It is believed that this city is associated with the Thai national epic, the Ramakien, which is the Thai version of the Ramayana.
CONQUESTS AND EXPANSION
Ayutthaya began its hegemony by conquering northern kingdoms and city-states like Sukhothai,:222 Kamphaeng Phet and Phitsanulok. Before the end of the fifteenth century, Ayutthaya launched attacks on Angkor, the classical great power of the region. Angkor's influence eventually faded from the Chao Phraya River Plain while Ayutthaya became a new great power.
The emerging Kingdom of Ayutthaya was also growing powerful. Relations between the Ayutthaya and Lan Na had worsened since the Ayutthayan support of Thau Choi's rebellion In 1451, Yuttitthira, a noble of the Kingdom of Sukhothai who had conflicts with Borommatrailokkanat of Ayutthaya, gave himself to Tilokaraj. Yuttitthira urged Borommatrailokkanat to invade Phitsanulok, igniting the Ayutthaya-Lan Na War over the Upper Chao Phraya valley (the Kingdom of Sukhothai). In 1460, the governor of Chaliang surrendered to Tilokaraj. Borommatrailokkanat then used a new strategy and concentrated on the wars with Lanna by moving the capital to Phitsanulok. Lan Na suffered setbacks and Tilokaraj eventually sued for peace in 1475.
However, the kingdom of Ayutthaya was not a unified state but rather a patchwork of self-governing principalities and tributary provinces owing allegiance to the king of Ayutthaya under The Circle of Power, or the mandala system, as some scholars suggested. These principalities might be ruled by members of the royal family of Ayutthaya, or by local rulers who had their own independent armies, having a duty to assist the capital when war or invasion occurred. However, it was evident that from time to time local revolts, led by local princes or kings, took place. Ayutthaya had to suppress them.
Due to the lack of succession law and a strong concept of meritocracy, whenever the succession was in dispute, princely governors or powerful dignitaries claiming their merit gathered their forces and moved on the capital to press their claims, culminating in several bloody coups.
Beginning in the fifteenth century, Ayutthaya showed an interest in the Malay Peninsula, but the great trading ports of the Malacca Sultanate contested its claims to sovereignty. Ayutthaya launched several abortive conquests against Malacca which was diplomatically and economically fortified by the military support of Ming China. In the early fifteenth century the Ming admiral Zheng He had established a base of operation in the port city, making it a strategic position the Chinese could not afford to lose to the Siamese. Under this protection, Malacca flourished, becoming one of Ayutthaya's great foes until the capture of Malacca by the Portuguese.
FIRST BURMESE WARS
Starting in the middle of 16th century, the kingdom came under repeated attacks by the Taungoo Dynasty of Burma. The Burmese–Siamese War (1547–49) began with Burmese an invasion and a failed siege of Ayutthaya. A second siege (1563–64) led by King Bayinnaung forced King Maha Chakkraphat to surrender in 1564. The royal family was taken to Bago, Burma, with the king's second son Mahinthrathirat installed as the vassal king. In 1568, Mahinthrathirat revolted when his father managed to return from Bago as a Buddhist monk. The ensuing third siege captured Ayutthaya in 1569 and Bayinnaung made Mahathammarachathirat his vassal king.
After Bayinnaung's death in 1581, uparaja Naresuan proclaimed Ayutthaya's independence in 1584. The Thai fought off repeated Burmese invasions (1584–1593), capped by an elephant duel between King Naresuan and Burmese heir-apparent Mingyi Swa in 1593 during the fourth siege of Ayutthaya in which Naresuan famously slew Mingyi Swa (observed 18 January as Royal Thai Armed Forces day). The Burmese–Siamese War (1594–1605) was a Thai attack on Burma, resulting in the capture of the Tanintharyi Region as far as Mottama in 1595 and Lan Na in 1602. Naresuan even invaded mainland Burma as far as Taungoo in 1600, but was driven back.
After Naresuan's death in 1605, northern Tanintharyi and Lan Na returned to Burmese control in 1614.
The Ayutthaya Kingdom's attempt to take over Lan Na and northern Tanintharyi in 1662–1664 failed.
Foreign trade brought Ayutthaya not only luxury items but also new arms and weapons. In the mid-seventeenth century, during King Narai's reign, Ayutthaya became very prosperous. In the eighteenth century, Ayutthaya gradually lost control over its provinces. Provincial governors exerted their power independently, and rebellions against the capital began.
SECOND BURMESE WARS
In the mid-eighteenth century, Ayutthaya again became ensnared in wars with the Burmese. The Burmese–Siamese War (1759–60) begun by the Konbaung Dynasty of Burma failed. The Burmese–Siamese War (1765–67) resulted in the sack of the city of Ayutthaya and the end of the kingdom by debellatio in April 1767.
KINGSHIP OF AYUTTHAYA KINGDOM
The kings of Ayutthaya were absolute monarchs with semi-religious status. Their authority derived from the ideologies of Hinduism and Buddhism as well as from natural leadership. The king of Sukhothai was the inspiration of Inscription 1 found in Sukhothai, which stated that King Ramkhamhaeng would hear the petition of any subject who rang the bell at the palace gate. The king was thus considered as a father by his people.
At Ayutthaya, however, the paternal aspects of kingship disappeared. The king was considered the chakkraphat (Sanskrit chakravartin) who through his adherence to the law made all the world revolve around him. According to Hindu tradition, the king is the avatar of Vishnu, destroyer of demons, who was born to be the defender of the people. The Buddhist belief in the king is as righteous ruler (Sanskrit: dharmaraja), aiming at the well-being of the people and who strictly follows the teaching of Gautama Buddha.
The kings' official names were reflections of those religions: Hinduism and Buddhism. They were considered as the incarnation of various Hindu gods: Indra, Shiva or Vishnu (Rama). The coronation ceremony was directed by brahmins as the Hindu god Shiva was "lord of the universe". However, according to the codes, the king had the ultimate duty as protector of the people and the annihilator of evil.
According to Buddhism, the king was also believed to be a bodhisattva. One of the most important duties of the king was to build a temple or a Buddha statue as a symbol of prosperity and peace.
For locals, another aspect of the kingship was also the analogy of "The Lord of the Land" or "He who Rules the Earth" (Phra Chao Phaendin). According to the court etiquette, a special language, Rachasap (Sanskrit: Rājāśabda, "Royal Language"), was used to communicate with or about royalty. In Ayutthaya, the king was said to grant control over land to his subjects, from nobles to commoners, according to the Sakna or Sakdina system codified by King Borommatrailokkanat (1448–88). The Sakdina system was similar to, but not the same as feudalism, under which the monarch does not own the land. While there is no concrete evidence that this land management system constituted a formal palace economy, the French François-Timoléon de Choisy, who came to Ayutthaya in 1685, wrote, "the king has absolute power. He is truly the god of the Siamese: no-one dares to utter his name." Another 17th-century writer, the Dutchman Jan van Vliet, remarked that the King of Siam was "honoured and worshipped by his subjects second to god." Laws and orders were issued by the king. For sometimes the king himself was also the highest judge who judged and punished important criminals such as traitors or rebels.
In addition to the Sakdina system, another of the numerous institutional innovations of Borommatrailokkanat was to adopt the position of uparaja, translated as "viceroy" or "prince", usually held by the king's senior son or full brother, in an attempt to regularise the succession to the throne - a particularly difficult feat for a polygamous dynasty. In practice, there was inherent conflict between king and uparaja and frequent disputed successions. However, it is evident that the power of the Throne of Ayutthaya had its limit. The hegemony of the Ayutthaya king was always based on his charisma in terms of his age and supporters. Without supporters, bloody coups took place from time to time. The most powerful figures of the capital were always generals, or the Minister of Military Department, Kalahom. During the last century of Ayutthaya, the bloody fighting among princes and generals, aiming at the throne, plagued the court.
SOCIAL AND POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT
THE REFORMS OF KING
Borommatrailokkanat (r.1448–1488) placed the king of Ayutthaya at the centre of a highly stratified social and political hierarchy that extended throughout the realm. Despite a lack of evidence, it is believed that in the Ayutthaya Kingdom, the basic unit of social organisation was the village community composed of extended family households. Title to land resided with the headman, who held it in the name of the community, although peasant proprietors enjoyed the use of land as long as they cultivated it. The lords gradually became courtiers (อำมาตย์) and tributary rulers of minor cities. The king ultimately came to be recognised as the earthly incarnation of Shiva or Vishnu and became the sacred object of politico-religious cult practices officiated over by royal court brahmans, part of the Buddhist court retinue. In the Buddhist context, the devaraja (divine king) was a bodhisattva. The belief in divine kingship prevailed into the eighteenth century, although by that time its religious implications had limited impact.With ample reserves of land available for cultivation, the realm depended on the acquisition and control of adequate manpower for farm labour and defence. The dramatic rise of Ayutthaya had entailed constant warfare and, as none of the parties in the region possessed a technological advantage, the outcome of battles was usually determined by the size of the armies. After each victorious campaign, Ayutthaya carried away a number of conquered people to its own territory, where they were assimilated and added to the labour force. Ramathibodi II (r.1491–1529) established a corvée system under which every freeman had to be registered as a phrai (servant) with the local lords, Chao Nai (เจ้านาย). When war broke out, male phrai were subject to impressment. Above the phrai was a nai (นาย), who was responsible for military service, corvée labour on public works, and on the land of the official to whom he was assigned. Phrai Suay (ไพร่ส่วย) met labour obligations by paying a tax. If he found the forced labour under his nai repugnant, he could sell himself as a that (ทาส, slave) to a more attractive nai or lord, who then paid a fee in compensation for the loss of corvée labour. As much as one-third of the manpower supply into the nineteenth century was composed of phrai. Wealth, status, and political influence were interrelated. The king allotted rice fields to court officials, provincial governors, military commanders, in payment for their services to the crown, according to the sakdi na system. The size of each official's allotment was determined by the number of commoners or phrai he could command to work it. The amount of manpower a particular headman, or official, could command determined his status relative to others in the hierarchy and his wealth. At the apex of the hierarchy, the king, who was symbolically the realm's largest landholder, theoretically commanded the services of the largest number of phrai, called phrai luang (royal servants), who paid taxes, served in the royal army, and worked on the crown lands.
However, the recruitment of the armed forces depended on nai, or mun nai, literally meaning 'lord', officials who commanded their own phrai som, or subjects. These officials had to submit to the king's command when war broke out. Officials thus became the key figures to the kingdom's politics. At least two officials staged coups, taking the throne themselves while bloody struggles between the king and his officials, followed by purges of court officials, were always seen.
King Trailok, in the early sixteenth century, established definite allotments of land and phrai for the royal officials at each rung in the hierarchy, thus determining the country's social structure until the introduction of salaries for government officials in the nineteenth century.
Outside this system to some extent were the sangha (Buddhist monastic community), which all classes of men could join, and the Overseas Chinese. Wats became centres of Thai education and culture, while during this period the Chinese first began to settle in Thailand and soon began to establish control over the country's economic life.
The Chinese were not obliged to register for corvée duty, so they were free to move about the kingdom at will and engage in commerce. By the sixteenth century, the Chinese controlled Ayutthaya's internal trade and had found important places in the civil and military service. Most of these men took Thai wives because few women left China to accompany the men.
Uthong was responsible for the compilation of a Dharmaśāstra, a legal code based on Hindu sources and traditional Thai custom. The Dharmaśāstra remained a tool of Thai law until late in the 19th century. A bureaucracy based on a hierarchy of ranked and titled officials was introduced, and society was organised in a related manner. However, the caste system was not adopted.
The sixteenth century witnessed the rise of Burma, which had overrun Chiang Mai and Laos and made war on the Thai. In 1569, Burmese forces, joined by Thai rebels, mostly royal family members of Thailand, captured the city of Ayutthaya and carried off the whole royal family to Burma. Dhammaraja (1569–90), a Thai governor who had aided the Burmese, was installed as vassal king at Ayutthaya. Thai independence was restored by his son, King Naresuan (1590–1605), who turned on the Burmese and by 1600 had driven them from the country.
Determined to prevent another treason like his father's, Naresuan set about unifying the country's administration directly under the royal court at Ayutthaya. He ended the practice of nominating royal princes to govern Ayutthaya's provinces, assigning instead court officials who were expected to execute policies handed down by the king. Thereafter royal princes were confined to the capital. Their power struggles continued, but at court under the king's watchful eye.
To ensure his control over the new class of governors, Naresuan decreed that all freemen subject to phrai service had become phrai luang, bound directly to the king, who distributed the use of their services to his officials. This measure gave the king a theoretical monopoly on all manpower, and the idea developed that since the king owned the services of all the people, he also possessed all the land. Ministerial offices and governorships - and the sakdina that went with them - were usually inherited positions dominated by a few families often connected to the king by marriage. Indeed, marriage was frequently used by Thai kings to cement alliances between themselves and powerful families, a custom prevailing through the nineteenth century. As a result of this policy, the king's wives usually numbered in the dozens.
Even with Naresuan's reforms, the effectiveness of the royal government over the next 150 years was unstable. Royal power outside the crown lands - although in theory absolute - was in practice limited by the looseness of the civil administration. The influence of central government and the king was not extensive beyond the capital. When war with the Burmese broke out in late eighteenth century, provinces easily abandoned the capital. As the enforcing troops were not easily rallied to defend the capital, the city of Ayutthaya could not stand against the Burmese aggressors.
RELIGION
Ayutthaya's main religion was Theravada Buddhism. However, many of the elements of the political and social system were incorporated from Hindu scriptures and were conducted by Brahmin priests. Many areas of the kingdom also practised Mahayana Buddhism, Islam and, influenced by French Missionaries who arrived through China in the 17th century, some small areas converted to Roman Catholicism. The influence of Mahayana and Tantric prractices also entered Theravada Buddhism, producing a tradition called Tantric Theravada.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
The Thais never lacked a rich food supply. Peasants planted rice for their own consumption and to pay taxes. Whatever remained was used to support religious institutions. From the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries, however, a remarkable transformation took place in Thai rice cultivation. In the highlands, where rainfall had to be supplemented by a system of irrigation that controlled the water level in flooded paddies, the Thais sowed the glutinous rice that is still the staple in the geographical regions of the North and Northeast. But in the floodplain of the Chao Phraya, farmers turned to a different variety of rice - the so-called floating rice, a slender, non-glutinous grain introduced from Bengal - that would grow fast enough to keep pace with the rise of the water level in the lowland fields.
The new strain grew easily and abundantly, producing a surplus that could be sold cheaply abroad. Ayutthaya, situated at the southern extremity of the floodplain, thus became the hub of economic activity. Under royal patronage, corvée labour dug canals on which rice was brought from the fields to the king's ships for export to China. In the process, the Chao Phraya - mud flats between the sea and firm land hitherto considered unsuitable for habitation - was reclaimed and placed under cultivation. Traditionally the king had a duty to perform a religious ceremony blessing the rice plantation.
Although rice was abundant in Ayutthaya, rice export was banned from time to time when famine occurred because of natural calamity or war. Rice was usually bartered for luxury goods and armaments from westerners, but rice cultivation was mainly for the domestic market and rice export was evidently unreliable. Trade with Europeans was lively in the seventeenth century. In fact European merchants traded their goods, mainly modern arms such as rifles and cannons, with local products from the inland jungle such as sapan (lit. bridge) woods, deerskin and rice. Tomé Pires, a Portuguese voyager, mentioned in the sixteenth century that Ayutthaya, or Odia, was rich in good merchandise. Most of the foreign merchants coming to Ayutthaya were European and Chinese, and were taxed by the authorities. The kingdom had an abundance of rice, salt, dried fish, arrack and vegetables.
Trade with foreigners, mainly the Dutch, reached its peak in the seventeenth century. Ayutthaya became a main destination for merchants from China and Japan. It was apparent that foreigners began taking part in the kingdom's politics. Ayutthayan kings employed foreign mercenaries who sometimes entered the wars with the kingdom's enemies. However, after the purge of the French in late seventeenth century, the major traders with Ayutthaya were the Chinese. The Dutch from the Dutch East Indies Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC), were still active. Ayutthaya's economy declined rapidly in the eighteenth century, until the Burmese invasion caused the total collapse of Ayutthaya's economy in 1788.
CONTACTS WITH THE WEST
In 1511, immediately after having conquered Malacca, the Portuguese sent a diplomatic mission headed by Duarte Fernandes to the court of King Ramathibodi II of Ayutthaya. Having established amicable relations between the kingdom of Portugal and the Kingdom of Siam, they returned with a Siamese envoy with gifts and letters to the King of Portugal. They were the first Europeans to visit the country. Five years after that initial contact, Ayutthaya and Portugal concluded a treaty granting the Portuguese permission to trade in the kingdom. A similar treaty in 1592 gave the Dutch a privileged position in the rice trade.
Foreigners were cordially welcomed at the court of Narai (1657–1688), a ruler with a cosmopolitan outlook who was nonetheless wary of outside influence. Important commercial ties were forged with Japan. Dutch and English trading companies were allowed to establish factories, and Thai diplomatic missions were sent to Paris and The Hague. By maintaining all these ties, the Thai court skilfully played off the Dutch against the English and the French, avoiding the excessive influence of a single power.
In 1664, however, the Dutch used force to exact a treaty granting them extraterritorial rights as well as freer access to trade. At the urging of his foreign minister, the Greek adventurer Constantine Phaulkon, Narai turned to France for assistance. French engineers constructed fortifications for the Thais and built a new palace at Lopburi for Narai. In addition, French missionaries engaged in education and medicine and brought the first printing press into the country. Louis XIV's personal interest was aroused by reports from missionaries suggesting that Narai might be converted to Christianity.
The French presence encouraged by Phaulkon, however, stirred the resentment and suspicions of the Thai nobles and Buddhist clergy. When word spread that Narai was dying, a general, Phetracha, killed the designated heir, a Christian, and had Phaulkon put to death along with a number of missionaries. The arrival of English warships provoked a massacre of more Europeans. Phetracha (reigned 1688–93) seized the throne and expelled the remaining foreigners. Some studies said that Ayutthaya began a period of alienation from western traders, while welcoming more Chinese merchants. But other recent studies argue that, due to wars and conflicts in Europe in the mid-eighteenth century, European merchants reduced their activities in the East. However, it was apparent that the Dutch East Indies Company or VOC was still doing business in Ayutthaya despite political difficulties.
THE FINAL PHASE
After a bloody period of dynastic struggle, Ayutthaya entered into what has been called the golden age, a relatively peaceful episode in the second quarter of the eighteenth century when art, literature, and learning flourished. There were foreign wars. Ayutthaya fought with the Nguyễn Lords (Vietnamese rulers of South Vietnam) for control of Cambodia starting around 1715. But a greater threat came from Burma, where the new Alaungpaya dynasty had subdued the Shan states.
The last fifty years of the kingdom witnessed a bloody struggle among the princes. The throne was their prime target. Purges of court officials and able generals followed. The last monarch, Ekathat, originally known as Prince Anurakmontree, forced the king, who was his younger brother, to step down and took the throne himself.
According to a French source, Ayutthaya in the eighteenth century comprised these principal cities: Martaban, Ligor or Nakhon Sri Thammarat, Tenasserim, Jungceylon or Phuket Island, Singora or Songkhla. Her tributaries were Patani, Pahang, Perak, Kedah and Malacca.
In 1765, a combined 40,000-strong force of Burmese armies invaded the territories of Ayutthaya from the north and west. Major outlying towns quickly capitulated. The only notable example of successful resistance to these forces was found at the village of Bang Rajan. After a 14 months' siege, the city of Ayutthaya capitulated and was burned in April 1767. Ayutthaya's art treasures, the libraries containing its literature, and the archives housing its historic records were almost totally destroyed, and the Burmese brought the Ayutthaya Kingdom to ruin.
The Burmese rule lasted a mere few months. The Burmese, who had also been fighting a simultaneous war with the Chinese since 1765, were forced to withdraw in early 1768 when the Chinese forces threatened their own capital.
With most Burmese forces having withdrawn, the country was reduced to chaos. All that remained of the old capital were some ruins of the royal palace. Provinces proclaimed independence under generals, rogue monks, and members of the royal family.
One general, Phraya Taksin, former governor of Taak, began the reunification effort. He gathered forces and began striking back at the Burmese. He finally established a capital at Thonburi, across the Chao Phraya from the present capital, Bangkok. Taak-Sin ascended the throne, becoming known as King Taak-Sin or Taksin.
The ruins of the historic city of Ayutthaya and "associated historic towns" in the Ayutthaya historical park have been listed by the UNESCO as World Heritage Site. The city of Ayutthaya was refounded near the old city, and is now capital of the Ayutthaya province.
WIKIPEDIA
This is me casting a spell. - What, you say!?
But.. Surely this should come as no surprise to you? - I who, in this quite common realm among ordinary men and women, stand out most unusual or rather to be frank not to be belonging, clearly channel powers, commune wisdom and even originate from beyond the lesser material planes of human known existence ;o)
This is not about world peace.
This is a restless dream of existence. The unceasing cycle of feeding and living.
Terns hover and glide and fly away. Nimble and fleet winged, they put on an aerial display of swiftness.
This picture kept untouched for the dreamy soft look.
I have been trying for 3 years to capture the terns in flight with a singular lack of success.
Today was a lucky day . I was trying to capture the dive sequence of Brahminy kites diving in to the water and picking up their prey with a swift leg motion.
The terns can not employ the fast leg movement as their muscles and talons will not support the movement and the strength required. The terns have to perforce pick up the food with their beaks and that is the opportunity that gives you the split second advantage in capturing this bird as it has to slow down its movement in the air just before it can actually use its beak to pick the food up from the water.
DSC_4261 hand held jpeg trans
- Primary Image
Manufacturer = NIKON CORPORATION
Model = NIKON D70
- Exif Specific
Exposure Time = 1/1000 sec [0.001]
F Number = 53/10 [5.300]
Metering mode = Pattern
Light Source = Unknown
Flash = Flash did not fire
Focal Length = 190 mm
In a dystopian 1984, Winston Smith endures a squalid existence in the totalitarian superstate of Oceania under the constant surveillance of the Thought Police. The story takes place in London, the capital city of the territory of Airstrip One (formerly "either England or Britain").
Winston works in a small office cubicle at the Ministry of Truth, rewriting history in accordance with the dictates of the Party and its supreme figurehead, Big Brother. A man haunted by painful memories and restless desires, Winston is an everyman who keeps a secret diary of his private thoughts, thus creating evidence of his thoughtcrime — the crime of independent thought, contrary to the dictates and aims of the Party.
His life takes a fatal turn when he is accosted by a fellow Outer Party worker — a mysterious, bold-looking girl named Julia — and they begin an illicit affair. Their first meeting takes place in the remote countryside where they exchange subversive ideas before having sex. Shortly after, Winston rents a room above a pawn shop (in the supposedly safe proletarian area) where they continue their liaison. Julia — a sensual, free-spirited young woman — procures contraband food and clothing on the black market, and for a brief few months they secretly meet and enjoy an idyllic life of relative freedom and contentment together.
It comes to an end one evening, with the sudden raid of the Thought Police. They are both arrested and it's revealed that there is a telescreen hidden behind a picture on the wall in their room, and that the proprietor of the pawn shop, Mr. Charrington, is a covert agent of the Thought Police. Winston and Julia are taken away to be detained, questioned and brutally "rehabilitated", separately. Winston is brought to the Ministry of Love, where O'Brien, a high-ranking member of the Inner Party whom Winston had previously believed to be a fellow thoughtcriminal and agent of the resistance movement led by the archenemy of the Party, Emmanuel Goldstein, systematically tortured him.
O'Brien instructs Winston about the state's true purpose and schools him in a kind of catechism on the principles of doublethink — the practice of holding two contradictory thoughts in the mind simultaneously. For his final rehabilitation, Winston is brought to Room 101, where O'Brien tells him he will be subjected to the "worst thing in the world", designed specifically around Smith's personal phobias. When confronted with this unbearable horror — which turns out to be a cage filled with wild rats — Winston's psychological resistance finally and irretrievably breaks down, and he hysterically repudiates his allegiance to Julia. Now completely subjugated and purged of any rebellious thoughts, impulses, or personal attachments, Winston is restored to physical health and released.
In the final scene, Winston returns to the Chestnut Tree Café, where he had previously seen the rehabilitated thoughtcriminals Jones, Aaronson and Rutherford (themselves once prominent but later disgraced members of the Inner Party) who have since been "vaporized" and rendered unpersons. While sitting at the chess table, Winston is approached by Julia, who was similarly "rehabilitated". They share a bottle of Victory Gin and impassively exchange a few words about how they have betrayed each other. After she leaves, Winston watches a broadcast of himself on the large telescreen confessing his "crimes" against the state and imploring forgiveness of the populace.
Upon hearing a news report declaring the Oceanian army's utter rout of the enemy (Eurasian)'s forces in North Africa, Winston looks at the still image of Big Brother that appears on the telescreen, then turns away and almost silently says "I love you" - a phrase that he and Julia repeatedly used during their relationship, indicating the possibility that he still loves Julia. However, he could also be declaring his love for Big Brother instead. The novel unambiguously ends with the words: "He loved Big Brother," whereas the movie seems to deliberately allow for either interpretation. Earlier, during Winston's conversation with Julia in the rented room, he stated that "if they can make me change my feelings, they can stop me from loving you, that would be real betrayal". In the final scene, the "real betrayal" has therefore either been committed or averted, depending on whether the "you" that Winston loves is Big Brother or Julia.
What is normal? - in a world where time travel, wormholes, and the existence of parallel timelines are no longer news - and AI version 214 helps in every way - the world looks completely normal - as shown in these pictures
Mock if you will! I have never come across one still in existence before. The buildings themselves are dwindling in number. These kinds of toilets (this is probably a dry toilet) were once the rule rather than the exeption. Most streets in Queensbury shared toilets and midens, which were usually located at the end, or mid point of the street. Some like Cambridge Street had their own toilets at the bottom of the garden. Most of the communal toilets, and the private ones have gone. Those in existence, like the one at Shibden Head are empty, so this is a rare and interesting find!
It should be noted that this was the situation into the late 1950's, early 1960's, so the toilets have all gone in a realatively short space of time!
"Dan, do you realize we just witnessed a portion of your wife's previous existence, and her death in that existence?" -- Dr. Carl Reiner
“That marriage license cost me six bucks — you know, I can buy six wives for that in the middle of Africa.” -- Dan Fuller
Bride and the Beast , The
Allied Artists Pictures - 78 min
23 February 1958, Los Angeles ( RKO Hill Street )
Produced by Adrian Weiss and Louis Weiss
Director: Adrian Weiss
Screenplay: Edward D. Wood Jr.,
Original Story: Adrian Weiss
Stars: Charlotte Austin, Lance Fuller and Johnny Roth
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The Bride and the Beast @ American Film Institute
Note: The working title of the film was Queen of the Gorillas .
Production Date: early Jan 1957
Premiere Information: San Diego opening: 29 Jan 1958
Release Date: Mar 1958
>> EXTENSIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY
www.afi.com/members/catalog/DetailView.aspx?s=&Movie=...
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WATCH ONLINE >>
The Bride and the Beast - trailer
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GpQv95V5CQ
CLIPS
Bride and the Beast
www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHrClNjZCRU
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DVD >> BUY Online >> Bride and the Beast , The
www.amazon.com/Bride-Beast-Charlotte-Austin/dp/B0000687F7
AND
www.amazon.com/Bride-Beast-White-Gorilla/dp/B000MV8AFE
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www.moviesunlimited.com/musite/product.asp?sku=D35515
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shop.tcm.com/product.asp?sku=D35515
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www.oldies.com/product-view/5955GD.html
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REVIEW---Boxoffice Magazine - February 17, 1958
www.boxofficemagazine.com/the_vault/issue_page?issue_id=1...
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NEWSPAPER AD - Bride and the Beast , The
February 1958, Los Angeles ( RKO Hill Street )
www.flickr.com/photos/gorillamen/4471892311/
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POSTER, theatrical ( original ) - Bride and the Beast , The
www.wrongsideoftheart.com/2009/08/the-bride-and-the-beast...
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movielove.tumblr.com/post/175006220/theniftyfifties-the-b...
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Edward D. Wood Jr.
Ed Wood
Edward Davis Wood, Jr. (October 10, 1924 – December 10, 1978)
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www.imdb.com/name/nm0000248/miscsites
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WATCH ONLINE >>
The Haunted World of Edward D. Wood Jr. (1995)
89 min - Documentary
>> Watch now >>
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIBNWqfQV_k
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Ed Wood: Look Back in Angora (Video 1994)
51 min - Documentary
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CHARLOTTE AUSTIN
" Her 1958 film The Bride and the Beast (1958),
written by Edward D. Wood Jr., was released on DVD, newly remastered, in the spring of 2002 by Retromedia. VCI's later DVD release of the movie featured an audio commentary with Austin, supporting player Slick Slavin, gorilla movie expert Bob Burns and interviewer Tom Weaver. "
www.imdb.com/name/nm0042349/bio
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CHARLOTTE AUSTIN @ The Astounding B Monster
" Maybe the last thing Charlotte Austin would want to be remembered as is "Queen of the Gorillas." That was the working title of the film for which she may be known best, The Bride and the Beast. Exploitation filmmaker Adrian Weiss commissioned Hollywood fringe-dweller Ed Wood to script the low-budget shocker, in which Charlotte plays a newlywed whose simian genes beckon her to return to the jungle and abandon her understandably confused husband.
But there's more to Charlotte Austin than her brief film career would lead you to believe. She was named for the North Carolina city in which she was born, the daughter of Gene Austin, one of popular music's most unjustly underrated entertainers. Austin's recordings gave rise to the "crooning" craze that made stars of Crosby, Sinatra, Dick Haymes and many others. He also wrote numerous songs that have become pop music standards, My Blue Heaven and Lonesome Road among them. (Gene Austin died in 1972.)...
www.bmonster.com/profile32.html
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in
The Astounding B Monster Book [Paperback]
Marty Baumann
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0972858547/qid=111...
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CHARLOTTE AUSTIN @ Glamour Girls of the Silver Screen - Biography and Photos
www.glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen.com/show.php?id=16
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CHARLOTTE AUSTIN @ Spooky Tom's Nightmare Mansion
www.spookytoms.com/Charlotte_Austin_Tribute.html
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CHARLOTTE AUSTIN @ " It Came from Horrorwood:
Interviews with Moviemakers in the Science Fiction and Horror Tradition "
By Tom Weaver [Paperback] McFarland & Company (October 2004)
www.amazon.com/Came-Horrorwood-Interviews-Moviemakers-Tra...
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The Ayutthaya Historical Park (Thai: อุทยานประวัติศาสตร์พระนครศรีอยุธยา (Pronunciation)) covers the ruins of the old city of Ayutthaya, Thailand. The city of Ayutthaya was founded by King Ramathibodi I in 1350:222 The city was captured by the Burmese in 1569; though not pillaged, it lost "many valuable and artistic objects.":42–43 It was the capital of the country until its destruction by the Burmese army in 1767.
In 1969 the Fine Arts Department began with renovations of the ruins, which became more serious after it was declared a historical park in 1976. A part of the park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991. Thirty-five kings ruled the Ayutthaya kingdom during its existence. King Narai (1656-1688) held court not only in Ayutthaya but also from his palace in the nearby city of Lopburi, from where he ruled 8–9 months in the year.
PARK SITES
Wat Chaiwatthanaram
Wat Kasatrathiraj
Wat Kudi Dao
Wat Lokayasutharam
Wat Mahathat
Wat Phanan Choeng
Wiharn Phra Mongkhon Bopit
Wat Phra Ram
Wat Phra Sri Sanphet
Wat Ratchaburana, Ayutthaya
Wat Chai Mongkhon
Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon
Phra Chedi Suriyothai
Ayutthaya historical Study Centre
Japanese Settlement
Wat Phu Khao Thong
Elephant Camp
UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE
In 1991, a part of Ayutthaya Historical Park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site under criteria III as an excellent witness to the period of development of a true national Thai art. The inscribed area covered only 289 ha on central and southwest part of Ayutthaya island; as a result, only certain groups of historical sites are under UNESCO protection. The sites including Wat Ratchaburana, Wat Mahathat, Wat Phra Sri Sanphet, Wat Phra Ram and Wiharn Phra Mongkhon Bopit. The sites that are not part of World Heritage Sites are the sites outside Ayutthaya Island; for example, Wat Yai Chai Mongkon, Wat Phanan Choeng, Wat Chaiwatthanaram and Wat Phu Khao Thong.
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AYUTTHAYA
(/ɑːˈjuːtəjə/; Thai: อยุธยา, Thai pronunciation: [ʔajúttʰajaː]; also spelled Ayudhya) was a Siamese kingdom that existed from 1351 to 1767. Ayutthaya was friendly towards foreign traders, including the Chinese, Vietnamese, Indians, Japanese and Persians, and later the Portuguese, Spaniards, Dutch and French, permitting them to set up villages outside the walls of the capital, also called Ayutthaya.
In the sixteenth century, it was described by foreign traders as one of the biggest and wealthiest cities in the East. The court of King Narai (1656–88) had strong links with that of King Louis XIV of France, whose ambassadors compared the city in size and wealth to Paris.
By 1550, the kingdom's vassals included some city-states in the Malay Peninsula, Sukhothai, and parts of Cambodia.
In foreign accounts, Ayutthaya was called Siam, but many sources say the people of Ayutthaya called themselves Tai, and their kingdom Krung Tai "The Tai country" (กรุงไท).
HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
ORIGINS
According to the most widely accepted version of its origin, the Thai state based at Ayutthaya in the valley of the Chao Phraya River rose from the earlier, nearby Lavo Kingdom (at that time, still under the control of the Khmer Empire) and Suvarnabhumi. One source says that in the mid-fourteenth century, due to the threat of an epidemic, King Uthong moved his court south into the rich floodplain of the Chao Phraya River onto an island surrounded by rivers. The name of the city indicates the influence of Hinduism in the region as it is the Thai pronunciation of the famous Indian city of Ayodhya. It is believed that this city is associated with the Thai national epic, the Ramakien, which is the Thai version of the Ramayana.
CONQUESTS AND EXPANSION
Ayutthaya began its hegemony by conquering northern kingdoms and city-states like Sukhothai,:222 Kamphaeng Phet and Phitsanulok. Before the end of the fifteenth century, Ayutthaya launched attacks on Angkor, the classical great power of the region. Angkor's influence eventually faded from the Chao Phraya River Plain while Ayutthaya became a new great power.
The emerging Kingdom of Ayutthaya was also growing powerful. Relations between the Ayutthaya and Lan Na had worsened since the Ayutthayan support of Thau Choi's rebellion In 1451, Yuttitthira, a noble of the Kingdom of Sukhothai who had conflicts with Borommatrailokkanat of Ayutthaya, gave himself to Tilokaraj. Yuttitthira urged Borommatrailokkanat to invade Phitsanulok, igniting the Ayutthaya-Lan Na War over the Upper Chao Phraya valley (the Kingdom of Sukhothai). In 1460, the governor of Chaliang surrendered to Tilokaraj. Borommatrailokkanat then used a new strategy and concentrated on the wars with Lanna by moving the capital to Phitsanulok. Lan Na suffered setbacks and Tilokaraj eventually sued for peace in 1475.
However, the kingdom of Ayutthaya was not a unified state but rather a patchwork of self-governing principalities and tributary provinces owing allegiance to the king of Ayutthaya under The Circle of Power, or the mandala system, as some scholars suggested. These principalities might be ruled by members of the royal family of Ayutthaya, or by local rulers who had their own independent armies, having a duty to assist the capital when war or invasion occurred. However, it was evident that from time to time local revolts, led by local princes or kings, took place. Ayutthaya had to suppress them.
Due to the lack of succession law and a strong concept of meritocracy, whenever the succession was in dispute, princely governors or powerful dignitaries claiming their merit gathered their forces and moved on the capital to press their claims, culminating in several bloody coups.
Beginning in the fifteenth century, Ayutthaya showed an interest in the Malay Peninsula, but the great trading ports of the Malacca Sultanate contested its claims to sovereignty. Ayutthaya launched several abortive conquests against Malacca which was diplomatically and economically fortified by the military support of Ming China. In the early fifteenth century the Ming admiral Zheng He had established a base of operation in the port city, making it a strategic position the Chinese could not afford to lose to the Siamese. Under this protection, Malacca flourished, becoming one of Ayutthaya's great foes until the capture of Malacca by the Portuguese.
FIRST BURMESE WARS
Starting in the middle of 16th century, the kingdom came under repeated attacks by the Taungoo Dynasty of Burma. The Burmese–Siamese War (1547–49) began with Burmese an invasion and a failed siege of Ayutthaya. A second siege (1563–64) led by King Bayinnaung forced King Maha Chakkraphat to surrender in 1564. The royal family was taken to Bago, Burma, with the king's second son Mahinthrathirat installed as the vassal king. In 1568, Mahinthrathirat revolted when his father managed to return from Bago as a Buddhist monk. The ensuing third siege captured Ayutthaya in 1569 and Bayinnaung made Mahathammarachathirat his vassal king.
After Bayinnaung's death in 1581, uparaja Naresuan proclaimed Ayutthaya's independence in 1584. The Thai fought off repeated Burmese invasions (1584–1593), capped by an elephant duel between King Naresuan and Burmese heir-apparent Mingyi Swa in 1593 during the fourth siege of Ayutthaya in which Naresuan famously slew Mingyi Swa (observed 18 January as Royal Thai Armed Forces day). The Burmese–Siamese War (1594–1605) was a Thai attack on Burma, resulting in the capture of the Tanintharyi Region as far as Mottama in 1595 and Lan Na in 1602. Naresuan even invaded mainland Burma as far as Taungoo in 1600, but was driven back.
After Naresuan's death in 1605, northern Tanintharyi and Lan Na returned to Burmese control in 1614.
The Ayutthaya Kingdom's attempt to take over Lan Na and northern Tanintharyi in 1662–1664 failed.
Foreign trade brought Ayutthaya not only luxury items but also new arms and weapons. In the mid-seventeenth century, during King Narai's reign, Ayutthaya became very prosperous. In the eighteenth century, Ayutthaya gradually lost control over its provinces. Provincial governors exerted their power independently, and rebellions against the capital began.
SECOND BURMESE WARS
In the mid-eighteenth century, Ayutthaya again became ensnared in wars with the Burmese. The Burmese–Siamese War (1759–60) begun by the Konbaung Dynasty of Burma failed. The Burmese–Siamese War (1765–67) resulted in the sack of the city of Ayutthaya and the end of the kingdom by debellatio in April 1767.
KINGSHIP OF AYUTTHAYA KINGDOM
The kings of Ayutthaya were absolute monarchs with semi-religious status. Their authority derived from the ideologies of Hinduism and Buddhism as well as from natural leadership. The king of Sukhothai was the inspiration of Inscription 1 found in Sukhothai, which stated that King Ramkhamhaeng would hear the petition of any subject who rang the bell at the palace gate. The king was thus considered as a father by his people.
At Ayutthaya, however, the paternal aspects of kingship disappeared. The king was considered the chakkraphat (Sanskrit chakravartin) who through his adherence to the law made all the world revolve around him. According to Hindu tradition, the king is the avatar of Vishnu, destroyer of demons, who was born to be the defender of the people. The Buddhist belief in the king is as righteous ruler (Sanskrit: dharmaraja), aiming at the well-being of the people and who strictly follows the teaching of Gautama Buddha.
The kings' official names were reflections of those religions: Hinduism and Buddhism. They were considered as the incarnation of various Hindu gods: Indra, Shiva or Vishnu (Rama). The coronation ceremony was directed by brahmins as the Hindu god Shiva was "lord of the universe". However, according to the codes, the king had the ultimate duty as protector of the people and the annihilator of evil.
According to Buddhism, the king was also believed to be a bodhisattva. One of the most important duties of the king was to build a temple or a Buddha statue as a symbol of prosperity and peace.
For locals, another aspect of the kingship was also the analogy of "The Lord of the Land" or "He who Rules the Earth" (Phra Chao Phaendin). According to the court etiquette, a special language, Rachasap (Sanskrit: Rājāśabda, "Royal Language"), was used to communicate with or about royalty. In Ayutthaya, the king was said to grant control over land to his subjects, from nobles to commoners, according to the Sakna or Sakdina system codified by King Borommatrailokkanat (1448–88). The Sakdina system was similar to, but not the same as feudalism, under which the monarch does not own the land. While there is no concrete evidence that this land management system constituted a formal palace economy, the French François-Timoléon de Choisy, who came to Ayutthaya in 1685, wrote, "the king has absolute power. He is truly the god of the Siamese: no-one dares to utter his name." Another 17th-century writer, the Dutchman Jan van Vliet, remarked that the King of Siam was "honoured and worshipped by his subjects second to god." Laws and orders were issued by the king. For sometimes the king himself was also the highest judge who judged and punished important criminals such as traitors or rebels.[
In addition to the Sakdina system, another of the numerous institutional innovations of Borommatrailokkanat was to adopt the position of uparaja, translated as "viceroy" or "prince", usually held by the king's senior son or full brother, in an attempt to regularise the succession to the throne - a particularly difficult feat for a polygamous dynasty. In practice, there was inherent conflict between king and uparaja and frequent disputed successions. However, it is evident that the power of the Throne of Ayutthaya had its limit. The hegemony of the Ayutthaya king was always based on his charisma in terms of his age and supporters. Without supporters, bloody coups took place from time to time. The most powerful figures of the capital were always generals, or the Minister of Military Department, Kalahom. During the last century of Ayutthaya, the bloody fighting among princes and generals, aiming at the throne, plagued the court.
SOCIAL AND POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT
THE REFORMS OF KING
Borommatrailokkanat (r.1448–1488) placed the king of Ayutthaya at the centre of a highly stratified social and political hierarchy that extended throughout the realm. Despite a lack of evidence, it is believed that in the Ayutthaya Kingdom, the basic unit of social organisation was the village community composed of extended family households. Title to land resided with the headman, who held it in the name of the community, although peasant proprietors enjoyed the use of land as long as they cultivated it. The lords gradually became courtiers (อำมาตย์) and tributary rulers of minor cities. The king ultimately came to be recognised as the earthly incarnation of Shiva or Vishnu and became the sacred object of politico-religious cult practices officiated over by royal court brahmans, part of the Buddhist court retinue. In the Buddhist context, the devaraja (divine king) was a bodhisattva. The belief in divine kingship prevailed into the eighteenth century, although by that time its religious implications had limited impact.With ample reserves of land available for cultivation, the realm depended on the acquisition and control of adequate manpower for farm labour and defence. The dramatic rise of Ayutthaya had entailed constant warfare and, as none of the parties in the region possessed a technological advantage, the outcome of battles was usually determined by the size of the armies. After each victorious campaign, Ayutthaya carried away a number of conquered people to its own territory, where they were assimilated and added to the labour force. Ramathibodi II (r.1491–1529) established a corvée system under which every freeman had to be registered as a phrai (servant) with the local lords, Chao Nai (เจ้านาย). When war broke out, male phrai were subject to impressment. Above the phrai was a nai (นาย), who was responsible for military service, corvée labour on public works, and on the land of the official to whom he was assigned. Phrai Suay (ไพร่ส่วย) met labour obligations by paying a tax. If he found the forced labour under his nai repugnant, he could sell himself as a that (ทาส, slave) to a more attractive nai or lord, who then paid a fee in compensation for the loss of corvée labour. As much as one-third of the manpower supply into the nineteenth century was composed of phrai. Wealth, status, and political influence were interrelated. The king allotted rice fields to court officials, provincial governors, military commanders, in payment for their services to the crown, according to the sakdi na system. The size of each official's allotment was determined by the number of commoners or phrai he could command to work it. The amount of manpower a particular headman, or official, could command determined his status relative to others in the hierarchy and his wealth. At the apex of the hierarchy, the king, who was symbolically the realm's largest landholder, theoretically commanded the services of the largest number of phrai, called phrai luang (royal servants), who paid taxes, served in the royal army, and worked on the crown lands.
However, the recruitment of the armed forces depended on nai, or mun nai, literally meaning 'lord', officials who commanded their own phrai som, or subjects. These officials had to submit to the king's command when war broke out. Officials thus became the key figures to the kingdom's politics. At least two officials staged coups, taking the throne themselves while bloody struggles between the king and his officials, followed by purges of court officials, were always seen.
King Trailok, in the early sixteenth century, established definite allotments of land and phrai for the royal officials at each rung in the hierarchy, thus determining the country's social structure until the introduction of salaries for government officials in the nineteenth century.
Outside this system to some extent were the sangha (Buddhist monastic community), which all classes of men could join, and the Overseas Chinese. Wats became centres of Thai education and culture, while during this period the Chinese first began to settle in Thailand and soon began to establish control over the country's economic life.
The Chinese were not obliged to register for corvée duty, so they were free to move about the kingdom at will and engage in commerce. By the sixteenth century, the Chinese controlled Ayutthaya's internal trade and had found important places in the civil and military service. Most of these men took Thai wives because few women left China to accompany the men.
Uthong was responsible for the compilation of a Dharmaśāstra, a legal code based on Hindu sources and traditional Thai custom. The Dharmaśāstra remained a tool of Thai law until late in the 19th century. A bureaucracy based on a hierarchy of ranked and titled officials was introduced, and society was organised in a related manner. However, the caste system was not adopted.
The sixteenth century witnessed the rise of Burma, which had overrun Chiang Mai and Laos and made war on the Thai. In 1569, Burmese forces, joined by Thai rebels, mostly royal family members of Thailand, captured the city of Ayutthaya and carried off the whole royal family to Burma. Dhammaraja (1569–90), a Thai governor who had aided the Burmese, was installed as vassal king at Ayutthaya. Thai independence was restored by his son, King Naresuan (1590–1605), who turned on the Burmese and by 1600 had driven them from the country.
Determined to prevent another treason like his father's, Naresuan set about unifying the country's administration directly under the royal court at Ayutthaya. He ended the practice of nominating royal princes to govern Ayutthaya's provinces, assigning instead court officials who were expected to execute policies handed down by the king. Thereafter royal princes were confined to the capital. Their power struggles continued, but at court under the king's watchful eye.
To ensure his control over the new class of governors, Naresuan decreed that all freemen subject to phrai service had become phrai luang, bound directly to the king, who distributed the use of their services to his officials. This measure gave the king a theoretical monopoly on all manpower, and the idea developed that since the king owned the services of all the people, he also possessed all the land. Ministerial offices and governorships - and the sakdina that went with them - were usually inherited positions dominated by a few families often connected to the king by marriage. Indeed, marriage was frequently used by Thai kings to cement alliances between themselves and powerful families, a custom prevailing through the nineteenth century. As a result of this policy, the king's wives usually numbered in the dozens.
Even with Naresuan's reforms, the effectiveness of the royal government over the next 150 years was unstable. Royal power outside the crown lands - although in theory absolute - was in practice limited by the looseness of the civil administration. The influence of central government and the king was not extensive beyond the capital. When war with the Burmese broke out in late eighteenth century, provinces easily abandoned the capital. As the enforcing troops were not easily rallied to defend the capital, the city of Ayutthaya could not stand against the Burmese aggressors.
RELIGION
Ayutthaya's main religion was Theravada Buddhism. However, many of the elements of the political and social system were incorporated from Hindu scriptures and were conducted by Brahmin priests. Many areas of the kingdom also practised Mahayana Buddhism, Islam and, influenced by French Missionaries who arrived through China in the 17th century, some small areas converted to Roman Catholicism. The influence of Mahayana and Tantric prractices also entered Theravada Buddhism, producing a tradition called Tantric Theravada.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
The Thais never lacked a rich food supply. Peasants planted rice for their own consumption and to pay taxes. Whatever remained was used to support religious institutions. From the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries, however, a remarkable transformation took place in Thai rice cultivation. In the highlands, where rainfall had to be supplemented by a system of irrigation that controlled the water level in flooded paddies, the Thais sowed the glutinous rice that is still the staple in the geographical regions of the North and Northeast. But in the floodplain of the Chao Phraya, farmers turned to a different variety of rice - the so-called floating rice, a slender, non-glutinous grain introduced from Bengal - that would grow fast enough to keep pace with the rise of the water level in the lowland fields.
The new strain grew easily and abundantly, producing a surplus that could be sold cheaply abroad. Ayutthaya, situated at the southern extremity of the floodplain, thus became the hub of economic activity. Under royal patronage, corvée labour dug canals on which rice was brought from the fields to the king's ships for export to China. In the process, the Chao Phraya - mud flats between the sea and firm land hitherto considered unsuitable for habitation - was reclaimed and placed under cultivation. Traditionally the king had a duty to perform a religious ceremony blessing the rice plantation.
Although rice was abundant in Ayutthaya, rice export was banned from time to time when famine occurred because of natural calamity or war. Rice was usually bartered for luxury goods and armaments from westerners, but rice cultivation was mainly for the domestic market and rice export was evidently unreliable. Trade with Europeans was lively in the seventeenth century. In fact European merchants traded their goods, mainly modern arms such as rifles and cannons, with local products from the inland jungle such as sapan (lit. bridge) woods, deerskin and rice. Tomé Pires, a Portuguese voyager, mentioned in the sixteenth century that Ayutthaya, or Odia, was rich in good merchandise. Most of the foreign merchants coming to Ayutthaya were European and Chinese, and were taxed by the authorities. The kingdom had an abundance of rice, salt, dried fish, arrack and vegetables.
Trade with foreigners, mainly the Dutch, reached its peak in the seventeenth century. Ayutthaya became a main destination for merchants from China and Japan. It was apparent that foreigners began taking part in the kingdom's politics. Ayutthayan kings employed foreign mercenaries who sometimes entered the wars with the kingdom's enemies. However, after the purge of the French in late seventeenth century, the major traders with Ayutthaya were the Chinese. The Dutch from the Dutch East Indies Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC), were still active. Ayutthaya's economy declined rapidly in the eighteenth century, until the Burmese invasion caused the total collapse of Ayutthaya's economy in 1788.
CONTACTS WITH THE WEST
In 1511, immediately after having conquered Malacca, the Portuguese sent a diplomatic mission headed by Duarte Fernandes to the court of King Ramathibodi II of Ayutthaya. Having established amicable relations between the kingdom of Portugal and the Kingdom of Siam, they returned with a Siamese envoy with gifts and letters to the King of Portugal. They were the first Europeans to visit the country. Five years after that initial contact, Ayutthaya and Portugal concluded a treaty granting the Portuguese permission to trade in the kingdom. A similar treaty in 1592 gave the Dutch a privileged position in the rice trade.
Foreigners were cordially welcomed at the court of Narai (1657–1688), a ruler with a cosmopolitan outlook who was nonetheless wary of outside influence. Important commercial ties were forged with Japan. Dutch and English trading companies were allowed to establish factories, and Thai diplomatic missions were sent to Paris and The Hague. By maintaining all these ties, the Thai court skilfully played off the Dutch against the English and the French, avoiding the excessive influence of a single power.
In 1664, however, the Dutch used force to exact a treaty granting them extraterritorial rights as well as freer access to trade. At the urging of his foreign minister, the Greek adventurer Constantine Phaulkon, Narai turned to France for assistance. French engineers constructed fortifications for the Thais and built a new palace at Lopburi for Narai. In addition, French missionaries engaged in education and medicine and brought the first printing press into the country. Louis XIV's personal interest was aroused by reports from missionaries suggesting that Narai might be converted to Christianity.
The French presence encouraged by Phaulkon, however, stirred the resentment and suspicions of the Thai nobles and Buddhist clergy. When word spread that Narai was dying, a general, Phetracha, killed the designated heir, a Christian, and had Phaulkon put to death along with a number of missionaries. The arrival of English warships provoked a massacre of more Europeans. Phetracha (reigned 1688–93) seized the throne and expelled the remaining foreigners. Some studies said that Ayutthaya began a period of alienation from western traders, while welcoming more Chinese merchants. But other recent studies argue that, due to wars and conflicts in Europe in the mid-eighteenth century, European merchants reduced their activities in the East. However, it was apparent that the Dutch East Indies Company or VOC was still doing business in Ayutthaya despite political difficulties.
THE FINAL PHASE
After a bloody period of dynastic struggle, Ayutthaya entered into what has been called the golden age, a relatively peaceful episode in the second quarter of the eighteenth century when art, literature, and learning flourished. There were foreign wars. Ayutthaya fought with the Nguyễn Lords (Vietnamese rulers of South Vietnam) for control of Cambodia starting around 1715. But a greater threat came from Burma, where the new Alaungpaya dynasty had subdued the Shan states.
The last fifty years of the kingdom witnessed a bloody struggle among the princes. The throne was their prime target. Purges of court officials and able generals followed. The last monarch, Ekathat, originally known as Prince Anurakmontree, forced the king, who was his younger brother, to step down and took the throne himself.
According to a French source, Ayutthaya in the eighteenth century comprised these principal cities: Martaban, Ligor or Nakhon Sri Thammarat, Tenasserim, Jungceylon or Phuket Island, Singora or Songkhla. Her tributaries were Patani, Pahang, Perak, Kedah and Malacca.
In 1765, a combined 40,000-strong force of Burmese armies invaded the territories of Ayutthaya from the north and west. Major outlying towns quickly capitulated. The only notable example of successful resistance to these forces was found at the village of Bang Rajan. After a 14 months' siege, the city of Ayutthaya capitulated and was burned in April 1767. Ayutthaya's art treasures, the libraries containing its literature, and the archives housing its historic records were almost totally destroyed, and the Burmese brought the Ayutthaya Kingdom to ruin.
The Burmese rule lasted a mere few months. The Burmese, who had also been fighting a simultaneous war with the Chinese since 1765, were forced to withdraw in early 1768 when the Chinese forces threatened their own capital.
With most Burmese forces having withdrawn, the country was reduced to chaos. All that remained of the old capital were some ruins of the royal palace. Provinces proclaimed independence under generals, rogue monks, and members of the royal family.
One general, Phraya Taksin, former governor of Taak, began the reunification effort. He gathered forces and began striking back at the Burmese. He finally established a capital at Thonburi, across the Chao Phraya from the present capital, Bangkok. Taak-Sin ascended the throne, becoming known as King Taak-Sin or Taksin.
The ruins of the historic city of Ayutthaya and "associated historic towns" in the Ayutthaya historical park have been listed by the UNESCO as World Heritage Site. The city of Ayutthaya was refounded near the old city, and is now capital of the Ayutthaya province.
WIKIPEDIA
Where does one find the courage ?
to lean on broken dreams
How does one see more clearly ?
than the things that he has seen
more dark than most of them know
always with non belief
yet knowing all the while
that the valley held
more secrets
behind it's deep dark sheaf
but reddish dawn loomed
and drove the dark away
we thanked the rising sun
for holding back the gloom
smelled the wet grass
clean air and heard the birds
A new day was arriving
and if you were feeling well
it boded happiness.
Elswick is a district and electoral ward of the city and metropolitan borough of Newcastle upon Tyne, in the county of Tyne and Wear, England, 1.9 miles west of the city centre, bordering the River Tyne. Historically in Northumberland, Elswick became part of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1835. Elswick is home to the Newcastle Utilita Arena; and Newcastle College, with approximately 45,000 students.
History
In Roman times the Vallum, a defensive barrier behind Hadrian's Wall, reached its easternmost limit in Elswick. The Wall itself carried on as far as Wallsend.
The township of Elswick had originally formed part of the Barony of Bolam and was owned by Tynemouth Priory from 1120-1539, with a fishery present on the site. One of the earliest references to the coal mining industry of the north east occurs in 1330, when it was recorded that the Prior of Tynemouth let a colliery, called Heygrove, at "Elstewyke" for a rent of £5 per year. Elswick Colliery had 3 pits working from 1860 onwards. Elswick was owned by the Crown from 1539 to 1628, until it was sold by Charles I.
The Priors held a mansion in the middle of Elswick which was later occupied by Elswick Hall. Having been rebuilt a number of times, the last rebuild took place in 1810. The grounds of Elswick Hall became Elswick Park in 1881. Elswick changed significantly in the late 19th century with the extension of the railway from Carlisle to Newcastle in 1839 and the establishment of Armstrong's manufacturing works in 1847. Population increased rapidly during this period, from about 300 in 1801 to 59,165 in 1901. Tyneside flats were built in the area around Scotswood Road to accommodate the workforce.
The Elswick works was founded in 1847 by engineer William George Armstrong. It manufactured hydraulic machinery, cranes and bridges and, later, artillery. In 1882 the company merged with the shipbuilding firm of Charles Mitchell to form Armstrong, Mitchell & Company. Armstrong Mitchell merged again with the engineering firm of Joseph Whitworth in 1897, forming Armstrong, Whitworth & Co.
Elswick railway station was opened in 1889 to serve the area. It was located at the western end of the Elswick Works, whose workforce made up a significant proportion of travellers. The area suffered as a result of the inter-war and subsequent depressions, culminating in the demolition of the Elswick works. The station was closed and then demolished in 1967.
Elswick was hit hard by the decline of Tyneside's shipbuilding industry during the second half of the 20th century, and by the 1990s was widely regarded as one of the worst parts of Tyneside, if not the whole of Britain. According to a report by The Independent newspaper, unemployment stood at nearly 30% and the area had a widespread problem with drug abuse and arson attacks.
Elswick was formerly a township in the parish of Newcastle-St. John, in 1866 Elswick became a separate civil parish, on 1 April 1914 the parish was abolished to form Newcastle upon Tyne. In 1911 the parish had a population of 58,352. It is now in the unparished area of Newcastle upon Tyne.
Elswick today
Present day Elswick consists of a number of distinct neighbourhoods including the Adelaide Terrace area, Bentinck Estate, Condercum and Denhill Park, Cruddas Park (part renamed Riverside Dene), Elswick Triangle, Gill Street and the Courts, Grainger Park, Jubilee Estate, North Benwell, and both from the St John's and St Paul's areas. The local authority ward also incorporates Newcastle College, and the Utilita Arena Newcastle. As of the 2011 census, Elswick had one of the lowest White populations in Newcastle at around 55% with a large Asian population of 33.4% (including 15.9% Bangladeshi, 8.3% Pakistani), and 5.6% Black or Black British. Elswick has a large Muslim population of 31.9% and a Christian population of 43.4%. In 2018 it had an estimated population of 15,869.
The ward profile shows Elswick is the ward with the highest percentage of children under 14 years in Newcastle and has a lower than average number of senior citizens (10%) than Newcastle as a whole. Elswick has a lower than average number of houses in owner-occupation (26.3% compared with 49.9% for Newcastle city).
Elswick's Location
Located at a height of 53.1m, Elswick overlooks the River Tyne and is a suburban area in the West End of Newcastle upon Tyne.
Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle is a cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is located on the River Tyne's northern bank, opposite Gateshead to the south. It is the most populous settlement in the Tyneside conurbation and North East England.
Newcastle developed around a Roman settlement called Pons Aelius, the settlement became known as Monkchester before taking on the name of a castle built in 1080 by William the Conqueror's eldest son, Robert Curthose. It was one of the world's largest ship building and repair centres during the industrial revolution. Newcastle was part of the county of Northumberland until 1400, when it separated and formed a county of itself. In 1974, Newcastle became part of Tyne and Wear. Since 2018, the city council has been part of the North of Tyne Combined Authority.
The history of Newcastle upon Tyne dates back almost 2,000 years, during which it has been controlled by the Romans, the Angles and the Norsemen amongst others. Newcastle upon Tyne was originally known by its Roman name Pons Aelius. The name "Newcastle" has been used since the Norman conquest of England. Due to its prime location on the River Tyne, the town developed greatly during the Middle Ages and it was to play a major role in the Industrial Revolution, being granted city status in 1882. Today, the city is a major retail, commercial and cultural centre.
Roman settlement
The history of Newcastle dates from AD 122, when the Romans built the first bridge to cross the River Tyne at that point. The bridge was called Pons Aelius or 'Bridge of Aelius', Aelius being the family name of Roman Emperor Hadrian, who was responsible for the Roman wall built across northern England along the Tyne–Solway gap. Hadrian's Wall ran through present-day Newcastle, with stretches of wall and turrets visible along the West Road, and at a temple in Benwell. Traces of a milecastle were found on Westgate Road, midway between Clayton Street and Grainger Street, and it is likely that the course of the wall corresponded to present-day Westgate Road. The course of the wall can be traced eastwards to the Segedunum Roman fort at Wallsend, with the fort of Arbeia down-river at the mouth of the Tyne, on the south bank in what is now South Shields. The Tyne was then a wider, shallower river at this point and it is thought that the bridge was probably about 700 feet (210 m) long, made of wood and supported on stone piers. It is probable that it was sited near the current Swing Bridge, due to the fact that Roman artefacts were found there during the building of the latter bridge. Hadrian himself probably visited the site in 122. A shrine was set up on the completed bridge in 123 by the 6th Legion, with two altars to Neptune and Oceanus respectively. The two altars were subsequently found in the river and are on display in the Great North Museum in Newcastle.
The Romans built a stone-walled fort in 150 to protect the river crossing which was at the foot of the Tyne Gorge, and this took the name of the bridge so that the whole settlement was known as Pons Aelius. The fort was situated on a rocky outcrop overlooking the new bridge, on the site of the present Castle Keep. Pons Aelius is last mentioned in 400, in a Roman document listing all of the Roman military outposts. It is likely that nestling in the shadow of the fort would have been a small vicus, or village. Unfortunately, no buildings have been detected; only a few pieces of flagging. It is clear that there was a Roman cemetery near Clavering Place, behind the Central station, as a number of Roman coffins and sarcophagi have been unearthed there.
Despite the presence of the bridge, the settlement of Pons Aelius was not particularly important among the northern Roman settlements. The most important stations were those on the highway of Dere Street running from Eboracum (York) through Corstopitum (Corbridge) and to the lands north of the Wall. Corstopitum, being a major arsenal and supply centre, was much larger and more populous than Pons Aelius.
Anglo-Saxon development
The Angles arrived in the North-East of England in about 500 and may have landed on the Tyne. There is no evidence of an Anglo-Saxon settlement on or near the site of Pons Aelius during the Anglo-Saxon age. The bridge probably survived and there may well have been a small village at the northern end, but no evidence survives. At that time the region was dominated by two kingdoms, Bernicia, north of the Tees and ruled from Bamburgh, and Deira, south of the Tees and ruled from York. Bernicia and Deira combined to form the kingdom of Northanhymbra (Northumbria) early in the 7th century. There were three local kings who held the title of Bretwalda – 'Lord of Britain', Edwin of Deira (627–632), Oswald of Bernicia (633–641) and Oswy of Northumbria (641–658). The 7th century became known as the 'Golden Age of Northumbria', when the area was a beacon of culture and learning in Europe. The greatness of this period was based on its generally Christian culture and resulted in the Lindisfarne Gospels amongst other treasures. The Tyne valley was dotted with monasteries, with those at Monkwearmouth, Hexham and Jarrow being the most famous. Bede, who was based at Jarrow, wrote of a royal estate, known as Ad Murum, 'at the Wall', 12 miles (19 km) from the sea. It is thought that this estate may have been in what is now Newcastle. At some unknown time, the site of Newcastle came to be known as Monkchester. The reason for this title is unknown, as we are unaware of any specific monasteries at the site, and Bede made no reference to it. In 875 Halfdan Ragnarsson, the Danish Viking conqueror of York, led an army that attacked and pillaged various monasteries in the area, and it is thought that Monkchester was also pillaged at this time. Little more was heard of it until the coming of the Normans.
Norman period
After the arrival of William the Conqueror in England in 1066, the whole of England was quickly subjected to Norman rule. However, in Northumbria there was great resistance to the Normans, and in 1069 the newly appointed Norman Earl of Northumbria, Robert de Comines and 700 of his men were killed by the local population at Durham. The Northumbrians then marched on York, but William was able to suppress the uprising. That same year, a second uprising occurred when a Danish fleet landed in the Humber. The Northumbrians again attacked York and destroyed the garrison there. William was again able to suppress the uprising, but this time he took revenge. He laid waste to the whole of the Midlands and the land from York to the Tees. In 1080, William Walcher, the Norman bishop of Durham and his followers were brutally murdered at Gateshead. This time Odo, bishop of Bayeux, William's half brother, devastated the land between the Tees and the Tweed. This was known as the 'Harrying of the North'. This devastation is reflected in the Domesday Book. The destruction had such an effect that the North remained poor and backward at least until Tudor times and perhaps until the Industrial Revolution. Newcastle suffered in this respect with the rest of the North.
In 1080 William sent his eldest son, Robert Curthose, north to defend the kingdom against the Scots. After his campaign, he moved to Monkchester and began the building of a 'New Castle'. This was of the "motte-and-bailey" type of construction, a wooden tower on top of an earthen mound (motte), surrounded by a moat and wooden stockade (bailey). It was this castle that gave Newcastle its name. In 1095 the Earl of Northumbria, Robert de Mowbray, rose up against the king, William Rufus, and Rufus sent an army north to recapture the castle. From then on the castle became crown property and was an important base from which the king could control the northern barons. The Northumbrian earldom was abolished and a Sheriff of Northumberland was appointed to administer the region. In 1091 the parish church of St Nicholas was consecrated on the site of the present Anglican cathedral, close by the bailey of the new castle. The church is believed to have been a wooden building on stone footings.
Not a trace of the tower or mound of the motte and bailey castle remains now. Henry II replaced it with a rectangular stone keep, which was built between 1172 and 1177 at a cost of £1,444. A stone bailey, in the form of a triangle, replaced the previous wooden one. The great outer gateway to the castle, called 'the Black Gate', was built later, between 1247 and 1250, in the reign of Henry III. There were at that time no town walls and when attacked by the Scots, the townspeople had to crowd into the bailey for safety. It is probable that the new castle acted as a magnet for local merchants because of the safety it provided. This in turn would help to expand trade in the town. At this time wool, skins and lead were being exported, whilst alum, pepper and ginger were being imported from France and Flanders.
Middle Ages
Throughout the Middle Ages, Newcastle was England's northern fortress, the centre for assembled armies. The Border war against Scotland lasted intermittently for several centuries – possibly the longest border war ever waged. During the civil war between Stephen and Matilda, David 1st of Scotland and his son were granted Cumbria and Northumberland respectively, so that for a period from 1139 to 1157, Newcastle was effectively in Scottish hands. It is believed that during this period, King David may have built the church of St Andrew and the Benedictine nunnery in Newcastle. However, King Stephen's successor, Henry II was strong enough to take back the Earldom of Northumbria from Malcolm IV.
The Scots king William the Lion was imprisoned in Newcastle, in 1174, after being captured at the Battle of Alnwick. Edward I brought the Stone of Scone and William Wallace south through the town and Newcastle was successfully defended against the Scots three times during the 14th century.
Around 1200, stone-faced, clay-filled jetties were starting to project into the river, an indication that trade was increasing in Newcastle. As the Roman roads continued to deteriorate, sea travel was gaining in importance. By 1275 Newcastle was the sixth largest wool exporting port in England. The principal exports at this time were wool, timber, coal, millstones, dairy produce, fish, salt and hides. Much of the developing trade was with the Baltic countries and Germany. Most of the Newcastle merchants were situated near the river, below the Castle. The earliest known charter was dated 1175 in the reign of Henry II, giving the townspeople some control over their town. In 1216 King John granted Newcastle a mayor[8] and also allowed the formation of guilds (known as Mysteries). These were cartels formed within different trades, which restricted trade to guild members. There were initially twelve guilds. Coal was being exported from Newcastle by 1250, and by 1350 the burgesses received a royal licence to export coal. This licence to export coal was jealously guarded by the Newcastle burgesses, and they tried to prevent any one else on the Tyne from exporting coal except through Newcastle. The burgesses similarly tried to prevent fish from being sold anywhere else on the Tyne except Newcastle. This led to conflicts with Gateshead and South Shields.
In 1265, the town was granted permission to impose a 'Wall Tax' or Murage, to pay for the construction of a fortified wall to enclose the town and protect it from Scottish invaders. The town walls were not completed until early in the 14th century. They were two miles (3 km) long, 9 feet (2.7 m) thick and 25 feet (7.6 m) high. They had six main gates, as well as some smaller gates, and had 17 towers. The land within the walls was divided almost equally by the Lort Burn, which flowed southwards and joined the Tyne to the east of the Castle. The town began to expand north of the Castle and west of the Lort Burn with various markets being set up within the walls.
In 1400 Henry IV granted a new charter, creating a County corporate which separated the town, but not the Castle, from the county of Northumberland and recognised it as a "county of itself" with a right to have a sheriff of its own. The burgesses were now allowed to choose six aldermen who, with the mayor would be justices of the peace. The mayor and sheriff were allowed to hold borough courts in the Guildhall.
Religious houses
During the Middle Ages a number of religious houses were established within the walls: the first of these was the Benedictine nunnery of St Bartholomew founded in 1086 near the present-day Nun Street. Both David I of Scotland and Henry I of England were benefactors of the religious house. Nothing of the nunnery remains now.
The friary of Blackfriars, Newcastle (Dominican) was established in 1239. These were also known as the Preaching Friars or Shod Friars, because they wore sandals, as opposed to other orders. The friary was situated in the present-day Friars Street. In 1280 the order was granted royal permission to make a postern in the town walls to communicate with their gardens outside the walls. On 19 June 1334, Edward Balliol, claimant to be King of Scotland, did homage to King Edward III, on behalf of the kingdom of Scotland, in the church of the friary. Much of the original buildings of the friary still exist, mainly because, after the Dissolution of the Monasteries the friary of Blackfriars was rented out by the corporation to nine of the local trade guilds.
The friary of Whitefriars (Carmelite) was established in 1262. The order was originally housed on the Wall Knoll in Pandon, but in 1307 it took over the buildings of another order, which went out of existence, the Friars of the Sac. The land, which had originally been given by Robert the Bruce, was situated in the present-day Hanover Square, behind the Central station. Nothing of the friary remains now.
The friary of Austinfriars (Augustinian) was established in 1290. The friary was on the site where the Holy Jesus Hospital was built in 1682. The friary was traditionally the lodging place of English kings whenever they visited or passed through Newcastle. In 1503 Princess Margaret, eldest daughter of Henry VII of England, stayed two days at the friary on her way to join her new husband James IV of Scotland.
The friary of Greyfriars (Franciscans) was established in 1274. The friary was in the present-day area between Pilgrim Street, Grey Street, Market Street and High Chare. Nothing of the original buildings remains.
The friary of the Order of the Holy Trinity, also known as the Trinitarians, was established in 1360. The order devoted a third of its income to buying back captives of the Saracens, during the Crusades. Their house was on the Wall Knoll, in Pandon, to the east of the city, but within the walls. Wall Knoll had previously been occupied by the White Friars until they moved to new premises in 1307.
All of the above religious houses were closed in about 1540, when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries.
An important street running through Newcastle at the time was Pilgrim Street, running northwards inside the walls and leading to the Pilgrim Gate on the north wall. The street still exists today as arguably Newcastle's main shopping street.
Tudor period
The Scottish border wars continued for much of the 16th century, so that during that time, Newcastle was often threatened with invasion by the Scots, but also remained important as a border stronghold against them.
During the Reformation begun by Henry VIII in 1536, the five Newcastle friaries and the single nunnery were dissolved and the land was sold to the Corporation and to rich merchants. At this time there were fewer than 60 inmates of the religious houses in Newcastle. The convent of Blackfriars was leased to nine craft guilds to be used as their headquarters. This probably explains why it is the only one of the religious houses whose building survives to the present day. The priories at Tynemouth and Durham were also dissolved, thus ending the long-running rivalry between Newcastle and the church for control of trade on the Tyne. A little later, the property of the nunnery of St Bartholomew and of Grey Friars were bought by Robert Anderson, who had the buildings demolished to build his grand Newe House (also known as Anderson Place).
With the gradual decline of the Scottish border wars the town walls were allowed to decline as well as the castle. By 1547, about 10,000 people were living in Newcastle. At the beginning of the 16th century exports of wool from Newcastle were more than twice the value of exports of coal, but during the century coal exports continued to increase.
Under Edward VI, John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, sponsored an act allowing Newcastle to annexe Gateshead as its suburb. The main reason for this was to allow the Newcastle Hostmen, who controlled the export of Tyne coal, to get their hands on the Gateshead coal mines, previously controlled by the Bishop of Durham. However, when Mary I came to power, Dudley met his downfall and the decision was reversed. The Reformation allowed private access to coal mines previously owned by Tynemouth and Durham priories and as a result coal exports increase dramatically, from 15,000 tons in 1500 to 35,000 tons in 1565, and to 400,000 tons in 1625.
The plague visited Newcastle four times during the 16th century, in 1579 when 2,000 people died, in 1589 when 1700 died, in 1595 and finally in 1597.
In 1600 Elizabeth I granted Newcastle a charter for an exclusive body of electors, the right to elect the mayor and burgesses. The charter also gave the Hostmen exclusive rights to load coal at any point on the Tyne. The Hostmen developed as an exclusive group within the Merchant Adventurers who had been incorporated by a charter in 1547.
Stuart period
In 1636 there was a serious outbreak of bubonic plague in Newcastle. There had been several previous outbreaks of the disease over the years, but this was the most serious. It is thought to have arrived from the Netherlands via ships that were trading between the Tyne and that country. It first appeared in the lower part of the town near the docks but gradually spread to all parts of the town. As the disease gained hold the authorities took measures to control it by boarding up any properties that contained infected persons, meaning that whole families were locked up together with the infected family members. Other infected persons were put in huts outside the town walls and left to die. Plague pits were dug next to the town's four churches and outside the town walls to receive the bodies in mass burials. Over the course of the outbreak 5,631 deaths were recorded out of an estimated population of 12,000, a death rate of 47%.
In 1637 Charles I tried to raise money by doubling the 'voluntary' tax on coal in return for allowing the Newcastle Hostmen to regulate production and fix prices. This caused outrage amongst the London importers and the East Anglian shippers. Both groups decided to boycott Tyne coal and as a result forced Charles to reverse his decision in 1638.
In 1640 during the Second Bishops' War, the Scots successfully invaded Newcastle. The occupying army demanded £850 per day from the Corporation to billet the Scottish troops. Trade from the Tyne ground to a halt during the occupation. The Scots left in 1641 after receiving a Parliamentary pardon and a £4,000,000 loan from the town.
In 1642 the English Civil War began. King Charles realised the value of the Tyne coal trade and therefore garrisoned Newcastle. A Royalist was appointed as governor. At that time, Newcastle and King's Lynn were the only important seaports to support the crown. In 1644 Parliament blockaded the Tyne to prevent the king from receiving revenue from the Tyne coal trade. Coal exports fell from 450,000 to 3,000 tons and London suffered a hard winter without fuel. Parliament encouraged the coal trade from the Wear to try to replace that lost from Newcastle but that was not enough to make up for the lost Tyneside tonnage.
In 1644 the Scots crossed the border. Newcastle strengthened its defences in preparation. The Scottish army, with 40,000 troops, besieged Newcastle for three months until the garrison of 1,500 surrendered. During the siege, the Scots bombarded the walls with their artillery, situated in Gateshead and Castle Leazes. The Scottish commander threatened to destroy the steeple of St Nicholas's Church by gunfire if the mayor, Sir John Marley, did not surrender the town. The mayor responded by placing Scottish prisoners that they had captured in the steeple, so saving it from destruction. The town walls were finally breached by a combination of artillery and sapping. In gratitude for this defence, Charles gave Newcastle the motto 'Fortiter Defendit Triumphans' to be added to its coat of arms. The Scottish army occupied Northumberland and Durham for two years. The coal taxes had to pay for the Scottish occupation. In 1645 Charles surrendered to the Scots and was imprisoned in Newcastle for nine months. After the Civil War the coal trade on the Tyne soon picked up and exceeded its pre-war levels.
A new Guildhall was completed on the Sandhill next to the river in 1655, replacing an earlier facility damaged by fire in 1639, and became the meeting place of Newcastle Town Council. In 1681 the Hospital of the Holy Jesus was built partly on the site of the Austin Friars. The Guildhall and Holy Jesus Hospital still exist.
Charles II tried to impose a charter on Newcastle to give the king the right to appoint the mayor, sheriff, recorder and town clerk. Charles died before the charter came into effect. In 1685, James II tried to replace Corporation members with named Catholics. However, James' mandate was suspended in 1689 after the Glorious Revolution welcoming William of Orange. In 1689, after the fall of James II, the people of Newcastle tore down his bronze equestrian statue in Sandhill and tossed it into the Tyne. The bronze was later used to make bells for All Saints Church.
In 1689 the Lort Burn was covered over. At this time it was an open sewer. The channel followed by the Lort Burn became the present day Dean Street. At that time, the centre of Newcastle was still the Sandhill area, with many merchants living along the Close or on the Side. The path of the main road through Newcastle ran from the single Tyne bridge, through Sandhill to the Side, a narrow street which climbed steeply on the north-east side of the castle hill until it reached the higher ground alongside St Nicholas' Church. As Newcastle developed, the Side became lined with buildings with projecting upper stories, so that the main street through Newcastle was a narrow, congested, steep thoroughfare.
In 1701 the Keelmen's Hospital was built in the Sandgate area of the city, using funds provided by the keelmen. The building still stands today.
Eighteenth century
In the 18th century, Newcastle was the country's largest print centre after London, Oxford and Cambridge, and the Literary and Philosophical Society of 1793, with its erudite debates and large stock of books in several languages predated the London Library by half a century.
In 1715, during the Jacobite rising in favour of the Old Pretender, an army of Jacobite supporters marched on Newcastle. Many of the Northumbrian gentry joined the rebels. The citizens prepared for its arrival by arresting Jacobite supporters and accepting 700 extra recruits into the local militia. The gates of the city were closed against the rebels. This proved enough to delay an attack until reinforcements arrived forcing the rebel army to move across to the west coast. The rebels finally surrendered at Preston.
In 1745, during a second Jacobite rising in favour of the Young Pretender, a Scottish army crossed the border led by Bonnie Prince Charlie. Once again Newcastle prepared by arresting Jacobite supporters and inducting 800 volunteers into the local militia. The town walls were strengthened, most of the gates were blocked up and some 200 cannon were deployed. 20,000 regulars were billeted on the Town Moor. These preparations were enough to force the rebel army to travel south via the west coast. They were eventually defeated at Culloden in 1746.
Newcastle's actions during the 1715 rising in resisting the rebels and declaring for George I, in contrast to the rest of the region, is the most likely source of the nickname 'Geordie', applied to people from Tyneside, or more accurately Newcastle. Another theory, however, is that the name 'Geordie' came from the inventor of the Geordie lamp, George Stephenson. It was a type of safety lamp used in mining, but was not invented until 1815. Apparently the term 'German Geordie' was in common use during the 18th century.
The city's first hospital, Newcastle Infirmary opened in 1753; it was funded by public subscription. A lying-in hospital was established in Newcastle in 1760. The city's first public hospital for mentally ill patients, Wardens Close Lunatic Hospital was opened in October 1767.
In 1771 a flood swept away much of the bridge at Newcastle. The bridge had been built in 1250 and repaired after a flood in 1339. The bridge supported various houses and three towers and an old chapel. A blue stone was placed in the middle of the bridge to mark the boundary between Newcastle and the Palatinate of Durham. A temporary wooden bridge had to be built, and this remained in use until 1781, when a new stone bridge was completed. The new bridge consisted of nine arches. In 1801, because of the pressure of traffic, the bridge had to be widened.
A permanent military presence was established in the city with the completion of Fenham Barracks in 1806. The facilities at the Castle for holding assizes, which had been condemned for their inconvenience and unhealthiness, were replaced when the Moot Hall opened in August 1812.
Victorian period
Present-day Newcastle owes much of its architecture to the work of the builder Richard Grainger, aided by architects John Dobson, Thomas Oliver, John and Benjamin Green and others. In 1834 Grainger won a competition to produce a new plan for central Newcastle. He put this plan into effect using the above architects as well as architects employed in his own office. Grainger and Oliver had already built Leazes Terrace, Leazes Crescent and Leazes Place between 1829 and 1834. Grainger and Dobson had also built the Royal Arcade at the foot of Pilgrim Street between 1830 and 1832. The most ambitious project covered 12 acres 12 acres (49,000 m2) in central Newcastle, on the site of Newe House (also called Anderson Place). Grainger built three new thoroughfares, Grey Street, Grainger Street and Clayton Street with many connecting streets, as well as the Central Exchange and the Grainger Market. John Wardle and George Walker, working in Grainger's office, designed Clayton Street, Grainger Street and most of Grey Street. Dobson designed the Grainger Market and much of the east side of Grey Street. John and Benjamin Green designed the Theatre Royal at the top of Grey Street, where Grainger placed the column of Grey's Monument as a focus for the whole scheme. Grey Street is considered to be one of the finest streets in the country, with its elegant curve. Unfortunately most of old Eldon Square was demolished in the 1960s in the name of progress. The Royal Arcade met a similar fate.
In 1849 a new bridge was built across the river at Newcastle. This was the High Level Bridge, designed by Robert Stephenson, and slightly up river from the existing bridge. The bridge was designed to carry road and rail traffic across the Tyne Gorge on two decks with rail traffic on the upper deck and road traffic on the lower. The new bridge meant that traffic could pass through Newcastle without having to negotiate the steep, narrow Side, as had been necessary for centuries. The bridge was opened by Queen Victoria, who one year later opened the new Central Station, designed by John Dobson. Trains were now able to cross the river, directly into the centre of Newcastle and carry on up to Scotland. The Army Riding School was also completed in 1849.
In 1854 a large fire started on the Gateshead quayside and an explosion caused it to spread across the river to the Newcastle quayside. A huge conflagration amongst the narrow alleys, or 'chares', destroyed the homes of 800 families as well as many business premises. The narrow alleys that had been destroyed were replaced by streets containing blocks of modern offices.
In 1863 the Town Hall in St Nicholas Square replaced the Guildhall as the meeting place of Newcastle Town Council.
In 1876 the low level bridge was replaced by a new bridge known as the Swing Bridge, so called because the bridge was able to swing horizontally on a central axis and allow ships to pass on either side. This meant that for the first time sizeable ships could pass up-river beyond Newcastle. The bridge was built and paid for by William Armstrong, a local arms manufacturer, who needed to have warships access his Elswick arms factory to fit armaments to them. The Swing Bridge's rotating mechanism is adapted from the cannon mounts developed in Armstrong's arms works. In 1882 the Elswick works began to build ships as well as to arm them. The Barrack Road drill hall was completed in 1890.
Industrialisation
In the 19th century, shipbuilding and heavy engineering were central to the city's prosperity; and the city was a powerhouse of the Industrial Revolution. Newcastle's development as a major city owed most to its central role in the production and export of coal. The phrase "taking coals to Newcastle" was first recorded in 1538; it proverbially denotes bringing a particular commodity to a place that has more than enough of it already.
Innovation in Newcastle and surrounding areas included the following:
George Stephenson developed a miner's safety lamp at the same time that Humphry Davy developed a rival design. The lamp made possible the opening up of ever deeper mines to provide the coal that powered the industrial revolution.
George and his son Robert Stephenson were hugely influential figures in the development of the early railways. George developed Blücher, a locomotive working at Killingworth colliery in 1814, whilst Robert was instrumental in the design of Rocket, a revolutionary design that was the forerunner of modern locomotives. Both men were involved in planning and building railway lines, all over this country and abroad.
Joseph Swan demonstrated a working electric light bulb about a year before Thomas Edison did the same in the USA. This led to a dispute as to who had actually invented the light bulb. Eventually the two rivals agreed to form a mutual company between them, the Edison and Swan Electric Light Company, known as Ediswan.
Charles Algernon Parsons invented the steam turbine, for marine use and for power generation. He used Turbinia, a small, turbine-powered ship, to demonstrate the speed that a steam turbine could generate. Turbinia literally ran rings around the British Fleet at a review at Spithead in 1897.
William Armstrong invented a hydraulic crane that was installed in dockyards up and down the country. He then began to design light, accurate field guns for the British army. These were a vast improvement on the existing guns that were then in use.
The following major industries developed in Newcastle or its surrounding area:
Glassmaking
A small glass industry existed in Newcastle from the mid-15th century. In 1615 restrictions were put on the use of wood for manufacturing glass. It was found that glass could be manufactured using the local coal, and so a glassmaking industry grew up on Tyneside. Huguenot glassmakers came over from France as refugees from persecution and set up glasshouses in the Skinnerburn area of Newcastle. Eventually, glass production moved to the Ouseburn area of Newcastle. In 1684 the Dagnia family, Sephardic Jewish emigrants from Altare, arrived in Newcastle from Stourbridge and established glasshouses along the Close, to manufacture high quality flint glass. The glass manufacturers used sand ballast from the boats arriving in the river as the main raw material. The glassware was then exported in collier brigs. The period from 1730 to 1785 was the highpoint of Newcastle glass manufacture, when the local glassmakers produced the 'Newcastle Light Baluster'. The glassmaking industry still exists in the west end of the city with local Artist and Glassmaker Jane Charles carrying on over four hundred years of hot glass blowing in Newcastle upon Tyne.
Locomotive manufacture
In 1823 George Stephenson and his son Robert established the world's first locomotive factory near Forth Street in Newcastle. Here they built locomotives for the Stockton and Darlington Railway and the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, as well as many others. It was here that the famous locomotive Rocket was designed and manufactured in preparation for the Rainhill Trials. Apart from building locomotives for the British market, the Newcastle works also produced locomotives for Europe and America. The Forth Street works continued to build locomotives until 1960.
Shipbuilding
In 1296 a wooden, 135 ft (41 m) long galley was constructed at the mouth of the Lort Burn in Newcastle, as part of a twenty-ship order from the king. The ship cost £205, and is the earliest record of shipbuilding in Newcastle. However the rise of the Tyne as a shipbuilding area was due to the need for collier brigs for the coal export trade. These wooden sailing ships were usually built locally, establishing local expertise in building ships. As ships changed from wood to steel, and from sail to steam, the local shipbuilding industry changed to build the new ships. Although shipbuilding was carried out up and down both sides of the river, the two main areas for building ships in Newcastle were Elswick, to the west, and Walker, to the east. By 1800 Tyneside was the third largest producer of ships in Britain. Unfortunately, after the Second World War, lack of modernisation and competition from abroad gradually caused the local industry to decline and die.
Armaments
In 1847 William Armstrong established a huge factory in Elswick, west of Newcastle. This was initially used to produce hydraulic cranes but subsequently began also to produce guns for both the army and the navy. After the Swing Bridge was built in 1876 allowing ships to pass up river, warships could have their armaments fitted alongside the Elswick works. Armstrong's company took over its industrial rival, Joseph Whitworth of Manchester in 1897.
Steam turbines
Charles Algernon Parsons invented the steam turbine and, in 1889, founded his own company C. A. Parsons and Company in Heaton, Newcastle to make steam turbines. Shortly after this, he realised that steam turbines could be used to propel ships and, in 1897, he founded a second company, Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company in Wallsend. It is there that he designed and manufactured Turbinia. Parsons turbines were initially used in warships but soon came to be used in merchant and passenger vessels, including the liner Mauretania which held the blue riband for the Atlantic crossing until 1929. Parsons' company in Heaton began to make turbo-generators for power stations and supplied power stations all over the world. The Heaton works, reduced in size, remains as part of the Siemens AG industrial giant.
Pottery
In 1762 the Maling pottery was founded in Sunderland by French Huguenots, but transferred to Newcastle in 1817. A factory was built in the Ouseburn area of the city. The factory was rebuilt twice, finally occupying a 14-acre (57,000 m2) site that was claimed to be the biggest pottery in the world and which had its own railway station. The pottery pioneered use of machines in making potteries as opposed to hand production. In the 1890s the company went up-market and employed in-house designers. The period up to the Second World War was the most profitable with a constant stream of new designs being introduced. However, after the war, production gradually declined and the company closed in 1963.
Expansion of the city
Newcastle was one of the boroughs reformed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835: the reformed municipal borough included the parishes of Byker, Elswick, Heaton, Jesmond, Newcastle All Saints, Newcastle St Andrew, Newcastle St John, Newcastle St Nicholas, and Westgate. The urban districts of Benwell and Fenham and Walker were added in 1904. In 1935, Newcastle gained Kenton and parts of the parishes of West Brunton, East Denton, Fawdon, Longbenton. The most recent expansion in Newcastle's boundaries took place under the Local Government Act 1972 on 1 April 1974, when Newcastle became a metropolitan borough, also including the urban districts of Gosforth and Newburn, and the parishes of Brunswick, Dinnington, Hazlerigg, North Gosforth and Woolsington from the Castle Ward Rural District, and the village of Westerhope.
Meanwhile Northumberland County Council was formed under the Local Government Act 1888 and benefited from a dedicated meeting place when County Hall was completed in the Castle Garth area of Newcastle in 1910. Following the Local Government Act 1972 County Hall relocated to Morpeth in April 1981.
Twentieth century
In 1925 work began on a new high-level road bridge to span the Tyne Gorge between Newcastle and Gateshead. The capacity of the existing High-Level Bridge and Swing Bridge were being strained to the limit, and an additional bridge had been discussed for a long time. The contract was awarded to the Dorman Long Company and the bridge was finally opened by King George V in 1928. The road deck was 84 feet (26 m) above the river and was supported by a 531 feet (162 m) steel arch. The new Tyne Bridge quickly became a symbol for Newcastle and Tyneside, and remains so today.
During the Second World War, Newcastle was largely spared the horrors inflicted upon other British cities bombed during the Blitz. Although the armaments factories and shipyards along the River Tyne were targeted by the Luftwaffe, they largely escaped unscathed. Manors goods yard and railway terminal, to the east of the city centre, and the suburbs of Jesmond and Heaton suffered bombing during 1941. There were 141 deaths and 587 injuries, a relatively small figure compared to the casualties in other industrial centres of Britain.
In 1963 the city gained its own university, the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, by act of parliament. A School of Medicine and Surgery had been established in Newcastle in 1834. This eventually developed into a college of medicine attached to Durham University. A college of physical science was also founded and became Armstrong College in 1904. In 1934 the two colleges merged to become King's College, Durham. This remained as part of Durham University until the new university was created in 1963. In 1992 the city gained its second university when Newcastle Polytechnic was granted university status as Northumbria University.
Newcastle City Council moved to the new Newcastle Civic Centre in 1968.
As heavy industries declined in the second half of the 20th century, large sections of the city centre were demolished along with many areas of slum housing. The leading political figure in the city during the 1960s was T. Dan Smith who oversaw a massive building programme of highrise housing estates and authorised the demolition of a quarter of the Georgian Grainger Town to make way for Eldon Square Shopping Centre. Smith's control in Newcastle collapsed when it was exposed that he had used public contracts to advantage himself and his business associates and for a time Newcastle became a byword for civic corruption as depicted in the films Get Carter and Stormy Monday and in the television series Our Friends in the North. However, much of the historic Grainger Town area survived and was, for the most part, fully restored in the late 1990s. Northumberland Street, initially the A1, was gradually closed to traffic from the 1970s and completely pedestrianised by 1998.
In 1978 a new rapid transport system, the Metro, was built, linking the Tyneside area. The system opened in August 1980. A new bridge was built to carry the Metro across the river between Gateshead and Newcastle. This was the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, commonly known as the Metro Bridge. Eventually the Metro system was extended to reach Newcastle Airport in 1991, and in 2002 the Metro system was extended to the nearby city of Sunderland.
As the 20th century progressed, trade on the Newcastle and Gateshead quaysides gradually declined, until by the 1980s both sides of the river were looking rather derelict. Shipping company offices had closed along with offices of firms related to shipping. There were also derelict warehouses lining the riverbank. Local government produced a master plan to re-develop the Newcastle quayside and this was begun in the 1990s. New offices, restaurants, bars and residential accommodation were built and the area has changed in the space of a few years into a vibrant area, partially returning the focus of Newcastle to the riverside, where it was in medieval times.
The Gateshead Millennium Bridge, a foot and cycle bridge, 26 feet (7.9 m) wide and 413 feet (126 m) long, was completed in 2001. The road deck is in the form of a curve and is supported by a steel arch. To allow ships to pass, the whole structure, both arch and road-deck, rotates on huge bearings at either end so that the road deck is lifted. The bridge can be said to open and shut like a human eye. It is an important addition to the re-developed quayside area, providing a vital link between the Newcastle and Gateshead quaysides.
Recent developments
Today the city is a vibrant centre for office and retail employment, but just a short distance away there are impoverished inner-city housing estates, in areas originally built to provide affordable housing for employees of the shipyards and other heavy industries that lined the River Tyne. In the 2010s Newcastle City Council began implementing plans to regenerate these depressed areas, such as those along the Ouseburn Valley.
First of Four in the CornFlower Series.
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This car began its existence as a 210 2-Door Sedan. The owner is in the process of trimming it up to a Bel Air.
Photographed at the Second Annual New Salem Shrine Club Car Show in Petersburg, Illinois on September 21, 2013. The car show is held in conjunction the Petersburg Harvest Fest celebration, and is co-sponsored by Brandt and Meteor Manufacturing.
Please visit my collection of Motor Vehicles on Flickr where you will find over 10,000 car and truck photos organized in albums by model year, manufacturer, vehicle type, and more. This project, which began in 2008, continues to expand with new material added daily.
The Theosophical Society, founded in New York in 1875, includes a Rosicrucian current that sees the Rosy Cross as ‘the divine light of self-knowledge’ (Franz Hartmann, 1838-1912). Yet there are no commentaries specifically dedicated to the Chymical Wedding in the theosophical literature. Like Helena Blavatsky (1831-1891), the co-founder of the Theosophical Society, the Austrian theosopher Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) was convinced that the mysteries of the Rosy Cross were ‘solely passed on through oral tradition’ (1906). Steiner became the Secretary General of the German branch of the Theosophical Society in 1902. He expected to discover authentic Rosicrucian rituals when he joined the Freemasons as his mentor Goethe had. But like the theosophers, he observed that the true spirit of the Rosy Cross was no longer to be found in the secret societies of his day. In 1906, the ‘Rosy Cross of the Theosophical Society’ began presenting the ‘Mystery of Golgotha’ as an entirely unique event in the history of mankind, at odds with the Theosophical Society’s custom of granting equal importance to all religions. In 1917, ten years after leaving Annie Besant’s Esoteric School and five years after founding the Anthroposophical Society, Steiner published a study on the Chymical Wedding in Berlin. The present article shows that this written commentary was a means for him to situate himself in the continuity of the Rosicrucian tradition of esoteric Christianity while introducing his own theosophy, which he called ‘anthroposophy’ or ‘spiritual science’, as the heir of the authentic Rosicrucians. The reference to the authoritative text allowed him to illustrate and justify his former assertions on 1) the actual existence of Christian Rosenkreuz and the Rosicrucian order, 2) the seven stages of Rosicrucian initiation, 3) Rosicrucianism as the best way of initiation for modern European man, 4) the “etheric vision” of Christ based on the action of Christian Rosencreuz’s “etheric body”. These ideas influenced a number of Western esotericists, including Neville Meakin (†1912), Max Heindel (1865-1919) and Jan van Rijckenborgh (1896-1968).
1 Chymical Wedding by Christian Rosencreutz has been the subject of an important reception1 within certain modern Western esoteric currents2, in particular since the end of the 19th century. In a context of criticism of positivism and enthusiasm for spiritualism from the United States, occultism was on the rise in Europe around 1900, and the Rosicrucians were a fashionable subject. In France, for example, the Martinist writer Joseph Péladan (1858-1918) organized between 1892 and 1897, in Parisian art galleries, several Salons de la Rose-Croix in which symbolist artists known as the Belgian painter Fernand Khnopff took part. . In this contribution, I will focus mainly on the period from 1875 – the date of the founding of the Theosophical Society in New York by the Russian occultist Helena Blavatsky, Colonel Henry Steel Olcott and a few others – to 1917, the year of the publication in Berlin of the Commentary on the Chemical Wedding of Christian Rose-Croix by the Austrian occultist Rudolf Steiner. The aim will be to understand Steiner's commentary from the inside, to reconstitute its internal logic from an emic perspective3, and to perceive in doing so the construction of the Rosicrucian myth specific to this esoteric4 vision of the world that is anthroposophy. . It will also be a question of resituating this commentary in the theosophical literature which preceded it and of bringing to light its influence on later esoteric literature.
Theosophical literature and the Chemical Weddings (1877-1902)
5 Franz Hartmann: Unter den Adepten und Rosenkreuzern (Leipzig n.d.). Berlin 1963, p. 96.
2The Theosophical Society is an international association teaching a religious syncretism of occultist and esoteric inspiration with a strong oriental flavor, particularly Buddhist and Hindu. Theosophical literature does not include a commentary dedicated specifically to the Chemical Wedding, but rather scattered reflections emphasizing the importance of Rosicrucianism as a Western path of self-knowledge leading to the knowledge of God. The German theosophist Franz Hartmann (1838-1912) states for example: “Es wird uns klar sein, daß es den Rosenkreuzern nicht so sehr um intellektuelle Forschung und Vielwisserei, als vielmehr um die göttliche Selbsterkenntnis zu tun war und um die Kraft des wahren Glaubens , der zu dieser Gotteserkenntnis führt. 5 The Theosophical Society does not regard any religion as superior to others; all express, according to her, an aspect of a universal truth. According to the famous motto of the Society, “there is no religion superior to truth”. According to Helena P. Blavatsky, the true spirit of the Rose-Croix no longer animates the Rosicrucians of her time:
6 Helena Petrovna Blavatsky: Isis unveiled. Key to the Mysteries of Ancient Science and Theology (...)
The Rose-Croix Brothers, mysterious practitioners of the Middle Ages, still exist, but only in name. They may 'shed tears over the grave of their revered Master Hiram Abiff', but they will search in vain for the true place 'where the acacia branch was placed'. The dead letter remains alone, the spirit has fled.6
3 This spirit is, according to her, much more preserved in literature – and Blavatsky explicitly quotes the famous initiatory novel by the British novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton Zanoni7 – than in the various lodges and groups claiming Rosicrucianism in his time in Europe and in the USA. None seem to find favor in his eyes. We can think of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia, a Rosicrucian order founded in London in 1865 by master masons William J. Hughan and Robert W. Little, or L'Aube Dorée, The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a secret society (whose rituals are inspired by the Golden Rose-Cross, at least for the distribution of degrees) founded in London in 1888 by Samuel Liddell Mathers and William Wynn Westcott, both members of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia. Note that Westcott later became theosophist. These groups multiplied at the end of the 19th century. In France, the Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-Croix founded in 1888 by Stanislas de Guaita (1861-1897) and Joséphin Péladan (1858-1918) had the role of perfecting the training of Martinists and included the French doctor and occultist Gérard Anaclet Vincent Encausse (1865-1916), known as Papus, among its members. In Germany, the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), a para-Masonic organization oriented towards magic, was animated by a member of the Societas Rosicruciana in Germania, the German-English occultist Theodor Reuß, who in 1902 obtained the right, with the German theosophist Franz Hartmann, to practice the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite and the Rite of Memphis-Misraïm.
Rudolf Steiner, the “Rose-Croix” of the Theosophical Society (1902-1906)
8 Gary Lachmann: Rudolf Steiner, a biography. Paris 2009.
9 Rudolf Steiner: Mein Lebensgang. Eine nicht vollendete Autobiography [1925], Rudolf Steiner Gesam (...)
10 Hartmann: Unter den Adepten, quoted by Friedrich Lienhard: Unter dem Rosenkreuz: ein Hausbuch aus (...)
4It was also in 1902 that Rudolf Steiner, an Austrian born in 1861 in a small village in Croatia (which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire), became Secretary General of the German section of the Theosophical Society, multiplying the conferences across Germany and beyond8. Steiner states in his autobiography that he became close to the Theosophists because, like them, he was convinced of the existence of a “spiritual world”9. At the beginning of the 20th century, Steiner gave less importance to the Rosicrucian manifestos than to an oral Rosicrucian tradition which would have remained intact within secret societies. He asserted in December 1906 that nothing of authentic Rosicrucianism would be found in the Rosicrucian writings of the early seventeenth century. Steiner endorses the argument of theosophists like Franz Hartmann who describe the essence of the authentic Rose-Croix as "the divine light of self-knowledge"10 and who are convinced that the mysteries of the Rose-Croix are only transmitted orally:
But you can see how difficult it has always been to get to know Rosicrucianism from the fact that Helmont, Leibniz and others were unable to find out anything about the Rosicrucians. The Rosicrucian initiation is historically traced back to a book from the beginning of the 17th century, which states, among other things, that the Rosicrucians dealt with alchemical things, as well as with other things, for example with higher education and so on. So it is written in the Fama Fraternitatis. / Nothing can be found there either about what really is Rosicrucianism, because the mysteries of the Rosicrucians have only been handed down through oral tradition. What has externally attached itself to the name Rosicrucian is very little suitable for fathoming the nature of the Rosicrucians.11
5 Steiner is also nourished by another tradition, in this case German thought and its “great geniuses”, which, according to him, must fertilize theosophy. Steiner thinks in particular of Goethe, whose thought cannot be grasped, according to him, without a deep understanding of its occult foundation. After having studied philosophy in Vienna and read in particular Kant, Fichte, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, after having defended in 1891 a doctoral thesis in philosophy at the University of Rostock, Steiner worked in Weimar on the edition of the scientific work of Goethe, and gave numerous lectures on Goethe to members of the Theosophical Society. Thus, in the lecture “Die okkulte Grundlage in Goethes Schaffen” (1905), he refers to Goethe’s poem Die Geheimnisse (1785), which according to him expresses the mysteries of the Rose-Croix12. Steiner takes Goethe for a Rose-Croix initiate. In 1780, the German poet was initiated into Freemasonry in the Amalia lodge in Weimar, and received in 1783 into the Order of the Illuminated under the name of Abaris. Speeches and many poems bear witness to this interest in Freemasons, but also several passages from Wilhelm Meister, from Dichtung und Wahrheit (Poetry and Truth) as well as Das Märchen (The Fairy Tale of the Beautiful Lily)
6 Steiner attempts to revitalize the Rosicrucian tradition not only by relating himself to the Rosicrucian inspiration of Goethe, but also by concretely seeking authentic Rosicrucians and rituals; he thinks he can do this by joining Freemasonry, like his mentor Goethe. It was in 1904-1905 that Steiner began to participate in Masonic activities, hoping to introduce the occult teachings of Theosophy into them. In 1905, he was initiated by Theodor Reuß into the Rite of Misraïm, with his wife – which cost him dearly, as noted by the German historian Helmut Zander14 –, and in 1906 became President of the “Chapter and Mystical Temple” Mystica Aeterna, in Berlin. In January 1906, he obtained permission from Theodor Reuß to bring into this Freemason Chapter as many members of the Theosophical Society (and other people) as he wished15. But he is somewhat wary of Reuß: “Reuß ist kein Mensch, auf den irgendwie zu bauen wäre. […] Wir haben es mit einem ‘Rahmen’, nicht mit mehr in der Wirklichkeit zu tun. Augenblicklich steckt gar nichts hinter der Sache. Die okkulten Mächte haben sich ganz davon zurückgezogen. 16 According to Helmut Zander, there is no historical proof that Steiner belonged to another Masonic society. In 1907, Steiner was appointed Grand Master of the Rite of Misraïm and led initiation ceremonies in this capacity. The First World War, however, marked the end of Steiner's Masonic activities. Between 1902 and 1906, Steiner developed his Christology independently within the Theosophical Society without this posing any particular problem. His relationship with Annie Besant is excellent: he is part of her Esoteric School and comments glowingly on the German translation of his work Esoteric Christianity published in 1903.
The gradual break with the Theosophists and the founding of the Anthroposophical Society (1906-1912)
18 Steiner, “Die drei Einweihungspfade”, lecture given in Basel on September 19, 1906 before (...)
19 Ibid., p. 92: “der größte der Religionslehrer”.
20 On the action of the Buddha, carried out at the request of the servant of Christ, Christian Rose-Croix, see (...)
7 It was in 1906 that Steiner distinguished for the first time three forms of initiation: the Eastern path, which presupposes the absolute obedience of the student to a guru, the Christian path, which would no longer be adapted to modern man due to the evolution of science and culture, and the Rosicrucian path, which would be free from any enslaving master-disciple relationship18. Alongside this hierarchy of initiatic schools, the "mystery of Golgotha" was mentioned for the first time, at the end of 1906, a concept which would become central to Steiner's Christology: Christ, considered as "the greatest religious teacher"19, embodies in an earthly physical body the solar macrocosmic Christ principle. He gives "the greatest impulse that the soul is able to assimilate" by coming from other worlds to unite with the earth. The Christ impulse, what Steiner calls the "mystery of Golgotha", is for him a completely unique and exceptional fact in the history of humanity. It is no coincidence that in several of his lectures, Steiner emphasizes that the life of Christ goes further than that of the Buddha, since it reaches the resurrection while that of the Buddha ends in the transfiguration20. By focusing his thought on the figure of Christ, Steiner approaches European theological traditions which consider Christ as a personal figure; but he distances himself from the theosophists of Adyar who give equal importance to all religions and consider Jesus as a “great initiate” among others. It was in this context that Annie Besant was elected President of the Theosophical Society in 1907. The same year, Steiner left the Esoteric School of Besant to found an independent esoteric school, teaching a Rosicrucian path rooted in a specifically European esoteric tradition. .
8 According to Helmut Zander, it was above all in opposition to Annie Besant that Steiner increasingly sought, from 1906-1907, to situate himself in a Rosicrucian tradition and to “Christologize” his thought21. The fact that in 1903 Steiner did not mention Christian Rose-Croix in his list of great initiates shows, according to Zander, that the Rosicrucian tradition was built gradually. It is also with the aim of building this European tradition that Steiner would have integrated Christian Rose-Croix in a series of reincarnations: Lazare, Hiram Abiff, the Count of Saint-Germain, etc. When Steiner and Besant agreed at the Munich Congress in May 1907, it was decided that Steiner would teach the Western, "Rosicrucian" path, and Besant the Eastern path. According to Zander, this agreement is superficial and hides a settlement of power. The day after the Congress, Steiner begins the cycle of lectures entitled Die Theosophie des Rosenkreuzers in which he emphasizes the superiority of the Rosicrucian path, and therefore, according to the German historian, his personal superiority over Besant. Zander is of the opinion that in these lectures, in particular in the last lecture of the cycle entitled "Theosophy according to the Rosicrucian method", the Rosicrucian reference would be applied like a thin superstructure on specifically Theosophical themes and, given its vague in the occultist circles of his time, would serve as an empty frame that Steiner could fill as he pleased with content from Christian and European esotericism22. This theory only seems partly relevant because the reference to the Rosicrucians is present long before the break with Besant and anchored in the German tradition, in Goethe in particular. From 1903-1904, Steiner presented Christian Rose-Croix and Jesus as the "two great Masters of the West", thus minimizing the influence of the Eastern Masters. In 1906 Steiner described the seven stages of the Rosicrucian path23, also present or explained in other texts, as in the Science of the Occult (1910) for example.
9 The fundamental disagreement concerns the theory of the return of Christ developed by Besant after the Munich Congress and explains that Steinerian Christology developed with increased speed after 1907. In 1908, Steiner clearly asserts the superiority of Christianity: “[… ] das Christentum ist größer als alle Religion! Das ist die Rosenkreuzerweisheit. 24 In 1911 he held conferences on Christian Rosicrucians at the newly created Rosicrucian branch of the Theosophical Society, where the disagreements appeared more and more evident. Unlike the Theosophists, Steiner considers Christian Rose-Croix as a personality who really lived in the 13th century, and the Rosicrucian order as an organization that really existed. The influence of the spiritual entity that is Christian Rose-Croix would be exerted mainly from his “etheric body”25, incarnated or not26. The action of Christ can take place according to Steiner only from the "etheric"27, that is to say from a subtle field of life forces made up of four ethers and located between the material and the astral plane. For Steiner, there can be no return of Christ to the physical plane, as the Theosophists assert. When leaders of the Theosophical Society believe they have found a new Messiah in the person of the young Hindu Jiddu Krishnamurti, Steiner separates definitively from the Theosophical Society to found, at the end of 1912, the Anthroposophical Society.
Rudolf Steiner anthroposophist: the role of the Chemical Weddings in the construction of a Rosicrucian tradition (1912-1917)
28 Rudolf Steiner: The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rose-Croix 1459, recorded by J. V. Andreae, Stud (...)
29 Rudolf Steiner: Die Theosophie des Rosenkreuzers, Vierzehn Vorträge, München 22. May bis 6. June 1 (...)
11 Steiner no doubt chose to comment on the Wedding because it was the Rosicrucian text he knew best31, but that is not the only reason. The importance he attached to this commentary is evident in the fact that, unlike many other things he has said about Christian Rose-Croix at conferences, it is a written study that he wrote himself. This is indicative of a change in initiatory method in modern times:
32 Bettina Gruber: “Überlegungen zu einer Begriffsdiskussion”. In: Moritz Baßler / Hildegard Châtel (...)
33 Aurélie Choné: Rudolf Steiner, Carl Gustav Jung, Hermann Hesse, Passeurs between East and West. (...)
As the written expression of the traditional teaching transmitted from master to disciple, the book increasingly replaces the oral transmission of knowledge within secret societies, and becomes what connects the instructor and the reader, or more precisely, the Real. and the reader. Reading thus becomes the occasion for a practice, that of a conscious relationship. This ‘self-initiation through reading’32 is a characteristic trend of modernity, perceptible as early as the 19th century. It is based on respect for the subject and his autonomy of thought, but in return requires significant self-discipline and a very firm will.33
30 Rudolf Steiner: Das rosenkreutzerische Christentum. Stuttgart 1950.
10 In 1917, five years after the foundation of the Anthroposophical Society, Steiner published in Berlin a study devoted to the Chemical Weddings28. A series of questions does not fail to arise: how to explain that Steiner felt the need to give a commentary on the Weddings when he did not comment on either the Fama or the Confessio? How to explain that he found it necessary to write a study insisting on the importance of this text eleven years after having affirmed that the oral tradition was more important than the Manifestos? Why did you publish this commentary precisely in 1917, more than a century ago, when he had already given several lectures in previous years on the Rosicrucian path, in particular ten years earlier, in 1907, Die Philosophie des Rosenkreuzers29 and in 1911-1912, on Rosicrucian Christianity30? And finally, for what purpose does he write this comment?
12 As secret societies no longer conveyed the authentic message according to Steiner, it no doubt seemed necessary to him, sensing the end of his life approaching, to write down what he knew of this original message. We will show that this written commentary was a means for him, at a time when he needed to affirm the identity of his movement in the face of the theosophists, to situate himself in the continuity of the Western tradition of Christian esotericism and to present anthroposophy as the heiress of the authentic Rosicrucians. If he appeals to an authoritative text, Les Noces Chymiques, it is to illustrate and justify his previous remarks:
on the real existence of Christian Rose-Croix and the Rosicrucian Order,
on the content of the Rosicrucian initiatory path,
on the superiority of the Rosicrucian path at the present time,
on the etheric vision of Christ thanks to the action of Christian Rose-Croix from the "etheric world".
The real existence of Christian Rose-Croix and the Order of the Rose-Croix
34 On this subject, see the article by Stefania Salvadori in this volume.
13 For Steiner, Johann Valentin Andreae (1586-1654) is the author of Les Noces Chymiques and he wrote the work in 1603, thirteen years before its publication in Strasbourg in 1616. It should be noted that these dates are roughly in line with the assertions of the most current researchers. Steiner does not seek to challenge by means of historical arguments the assertions of historians who hold the work to be “a kind of literary deception” (NC, 264). But he considers it impossible that a young man of seventeen had “the maturity required to ridicule the evaporated minds of his time, by presenting them with a phantasmagoria under the name of the Rosicrucian current”. Moreover, the spiritually very high content of Les Noces is not for him contradictory with the young age of the author. In his eyes, Andreae wrote under the dictation of “great intuitive forces” (NC, 269). Later, having become a pietistic theologian, Andreae would have lost this intuition, which explains why he was able to deny his story afterwards. Steiner points out that in transcribing the experiences of Christian Rose-Croix, the young Andreae encountered strong resistance, in this case “events similar to those which led to the Thirty Years’ War” (NC, 8). By comparing this situation to the one he knew himself, at a time when the development of anthroposophy was hampered by opposing forces, he clearly places himself in the continuity of the Rosicrucian current.
14 In his commentary, Steiner begins by explaining how the work should be approached, devoting several pages to the “method”, or rather to the attitude to adopt when faced with the text. Because it is precisely not an intellectual, scientific method in the usual sense of the word. Humility, self-knowledge and purification of the soul are the necessary conditions for the spiritual world to be able, through the text, to speak to the soul in the form of images, symbols, "secret figures" such as those of the Geheime Figuren der Rosenkreuzer35. A rather similar attitude of attentive listening with regard to images (and the products of the unconscious) characterizes the psychology of the depths of C. G. Jung (in particular the active imagination): it is not a question of seeking to understand intellectually the image that presents itself, but rather to let it act, to mature in the soul, to brood over it in oneself, until its meaning becomes clear; this requires great patience and the awareness that, as in any deep esoteric text, the message is never completely unveiled, deeper layers always remaining hidden.
15 The key to Steiner's argument therefore rests on a precise method, which he claims to deduce from the attitude and mode of perception of Christian Rose-Croix himself, as described in the novel. The historical method seems to him inappropriate for clarifying overly complicated controversies. “Spiritual Science” is presented as the most adequate way to deduce from the text itself the authenticity of the experiences described, and therefore the reality of the existence of Christian Rose-Croix as well as of the Rosicrucian current. It is not for him an allegory, but a true story, which confirms what he affirmed in his lectures of 1911 on the historical, and not mythical, figure of Christian Rose-Croix.
The content of the Rosicrucian initiatory school
16 In his commentary of 1917, Steiner explains, through the lived experience of Christian Rose-Croix, the seven stages of the Rosicrucian path which he had already exposed ten years earlier, in Die Theosophie des Rosenkreuzers: the study, the imagination, inspiration, the preparation of the Philosopher's Stone, the correspondences between macrocosm and microcosm, diving into the macrocosm and bliss. The seven days correspond to the stages of the initiatory path of Christian Rose-Croix towards the suprasensible worlds and reflect a process of alchemical transformation which leads him towards his spiritual rebirth.
17 From the first day, it is a question of an “imaginative vision” that Christian Rose-Croix had seven years earlier, which announced to him that he would be invited to the “Chymic Wedding”. Another imagination has him “see” a young woman in a blue dress studded with stars – the “manifestation of an entity from the spirit world” (NC, 195) according to Steiner. Another imagination reveals to him a portal, the threshold of the suprasensible world according to Steiner, and a castle, place of spiritual experience. Then comes the fourth day, with the presentation to the Kings and their decapitation: these symbols are for Steiner “authentic imaginations, in conformity with the laws which govern the evolution of the soul” (NC, 243). The ordeals that kings undergo foreshadow what must happen to Christian Rose-Croix himself. He feels the tragedy of the royal hall “as if his own soul lived it: Decapitation is a stage in his own evolution. (NC, 244) According to Steiner, the whole alchemical process described highlights "the mystery of psychic metamorphosis" (NC, 263), namely "the way in which the forces of knowledge, developed by the organism in the ordinary course of life, are transformed into forces of supersensible investigation. (NC, 253) The term "power of knowledge" is imbued with the philosophy of life (Lebensphilosophie) present at the time of Steiner, but it is a question of directing this vitalism towards a spiritualism by transforming sensitive knowledge in supersensible knowledge, which is possible only on condition "of being penetrated by the forces of death." (NC, 247) Thus Christian Rose-Croix contemplates the death of the "kings" in his soul, namely the death of "his means of knowledge, such as they result from the metamorphosis of the material processes of his organism, without himself intervenes. (NC, 248-249) By passing from natural alchemy to the art of alchemy, he will be able to confer on his ordinary faculties of knowledge a particular character which the processes of organic evolution have removed from them. The purpose of the fifth day is precisely, according to Steiner, to complete the natural alchemy. Christian Rose-Croix directs his gaze towards the “laboratory” of nature, where it “gives birth to the vital element of growth” (NC, 249). In the Tower of Olympus, during the preparation of the Stone of the Sages, the inanimate forces of knowledge are brought to life.
18 The seventh day describes the accomplishment of the alchemical work and the promotion of Christian Rose-Croix to the rank of “Knight of the Stone of Gold”. The man whose forces of the soul – thought, feeling, will – are transformed, is as if born again: he becomes the “father” of his own faculties of knowledge. It is a true gnosis in the sense of knowledge, the birth of new forces of supersensible knowledge. This also explains the Steinerian interpretation of the end of the story: Christian Rose-Croix expects to expiate the "fault" of having succumbed to the temptation by looking at Venus naked on the fifth day, and to be condemned to the charge of guardian; but this is not the case, because this guardian turns out in fact to be only a part of himself that he is able to distinguish from himself; and here we are almost approaching a Jungian interpretation of The Wedding , except that the existence of a spiritual world is clearly posed in Steiner: “He becomes the guardian of his own psychic life; but this office in no way prevents him from maintaining free relations with the world of the spirit. (NC, 260-261)
The Rosicrucian path, the initiatory school most suited to modern Europeans
19 Steiner also explains in his commentary on the Marriage why the Rosicrucian way is the most suitable for modern Western man.
20 First, it does not involve blindly following a guru as in the Eastern path as Steiner imagines it, or having absolute faith in the personality of Jesus Christ as in the Christian path. The Rosicrucian path gives less importance to feelings than to facts that can be observed and studied. The first stage of the journey, study, demonstrates the importance of a scientific approach. Steiner emphasizes that Christian Rose-Croix was versed in the knowledge provided by the study of the “Liberal Sciences and Arts” of his time and that he sought to unite knowledge and faith. This is also, according to Steiner, the objective of anthroposophy and as he can situate it in the continuity of the Rosicrucian current: neither religion nor philosophy, the Science of the mind (Geisteswissenschaft) aims to know the worlds suprasensibles with the same rigor as science studies the phenomena of the physical, sensible world.
36 Steiner: “The mission of Christian Rose-Croix, his character and his task. The mission of Gautama Bu (...)
21 This is only possible through the knowledge of nature, the very object of natural alchemy. In his commentary on the Wedding, Steiner clearly opposes the paths of mysticism and alchemy: “The alchemist seeks a knowledge of nature which opens the way to a true knowledge of man. (NC, 214) as the mystic turns inward. According to Steiner, it is quite revealing that the Rosicrucian current was born in the 15th century – a very dark period marked, according to him, by the appearance of the materialist current, which played a major role in scientific theories, especially in matters astronomy; with the beginnings of modern science – Copernicus (1473-1543), Galileo (1564-1642), Kepler (1571-1630), etc. – developed, according to him, “a vision of the world which saw in the macrocosm only an immense machinery composed of material globes”36. A new science must bring the necessary corrective to this materialistic tendency; and Steiner sees it represented in the Weddings through the figure of the Virgin whose name is Alchemy: "this suprasensible science comes from the spiritual worlds whereas the knowledge of the Seven 'Liberal Arts' is acquired on the sensible plane" (NC, 236).
22 In the same spirit, Agrippa von Nettesheim (1487-1535) and Paracelsus (1493-1541) sought, according to Steiner, to explore the laws of nature and access the superior worlds from the natural sciences, through the study of the five elements . The alchemist learns to know his soul as well as nature and discovers that the same forces act there. This is the fifth stage of the Rosicrucian path, the correspondences between macro- and microcosm. The contemplation of natural processes like dissolution and putrefaction becomes meditation, fervent prayer, and arouses a sense of devotion. According to Steiner, the sanctity of nature is at the center of Les Noces, the mission of Christian Rose-Croix being to discover the spirit in nature. As a Knight of the Stone of Gold, he will have to live in accordance with the two mottos inscribed on the medal he receives, as well as the other Knights, on the seventh day: "Art is the servant of nature" and “Nature is the daughter of time. (NC, 259)
37 Antoine Faivre: Access to Western esotericism. Paris vol. I 1986, vol. II, 1996.
23 Steiner presents the Science of the Spirit as the heir to the Rosicrucian current in that it seeks to rediscover the religious character that the study of nature had in the Middle Ages, to reveal the spiritual reality behind the veil of nature. At the same time, he seeks to show the evolution of the Rosicrucian teaching. Mainly based on the natural sciences in the Middle Ages, in connection with alchemy, it became in its time "Science of the mind" in connection with the natural sciences in the Goethean sense of the term. The great Rosicrucian meditation on the symbol of the cross surrounded by seven roses, described for example in 1910 in Die Geheimwissenschaft (Science of the Occult), is deeply linked to living Nature, one of the criteria of esotericism according to Antoine Faivre37, since it is first of all a question of representing a plant which opens out, its roots which plunge into the darkness, its stem which rises towards the light. It involves the transformation of the forces of life into spiritual forces by a process of transmutation of the "etheric" into supersensible energy: this inner alchemy constitutes the very essence of the new Rosicrucian mysteries according to Steiner.
38 Johann Valentin Andreae: The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rose-Croix. In: Bernard Gorceix: The bi (...)
24 Finally, Steiner wishes to show through the experiences of Christian Rose-Croix and his companions that the Rosicrucian initiation is a personal path at the service of society: “The presence of such men in the social order will be a leaven for those who it and will help clean it up. (NC, 261) On reading Les Noces, it clearly appears that Christian Rose-Croix will play a special role because he is led to see more marvels38 than his companions who "only perceive what is shown to them, without the intervention of their personal will. (NC, 230) By continuing to serve as a guardian after receiving the supreme reward, he does not return to his solitary life, out of the world; he sees himself obliged to link spiritual life and social life in the service of others (karma-yoga, one would say in the Indian tradition), which is characteristic of a modern initiation. Steiner situates anthroposophy in the continuity of this tradition by insisting on education for freedom and by showing the importance of the concrete societal applications of its ideas in fields as diverse as pedagogy, agriculture, medicine and science. 'architecture.
25 In his commentary on Les Noces, Steiner particularly insists on the visions and imaginations of Christian Rose-Croix, which would be produced by the action of his “etheric body”. On Easter Friday, Christian's supersensible perception allows him to have the vision of the woman in the blue dress: "This activity of the etheric body can be compared to the bringing into action of a radiant light. (NC, 195-196) It is this activity that every human being is called upon to develop thanks to a daily meditative practice allowing the metamorphosis of his soul and the development of faculties of supersensible perception. Through this central practice in the Rosicrucian initiation as Steiner understands it, the student feels the influence of the etheric body of Christian Rose-Croix and can perceive the appearance of Christ in his own etheric body, that is, say realize the Christ in himself, the inner Christ, without going through a guru or other spiritual master. According to Steiner, all of humanity would be called to live this experience of the road to Damascus, and not only the circle of Rosicrucian initiates. The mission of the "Science of the Spirit" would be to divulge the Rosicrucian mystery to as many people as possible today.
39 On this subject, see Véronique Liard's contribution: “Carl Gustav Jung and the Chymic Weddings. Alc (...)
40 I refer here to chapter 10 of C. G. Jung's Psychological Types: Psychologische Typen. Zurich (...)
41 However, this interpretation should be qualified. Indeed, experience plays a very important role (...)
26We can see a certain affinity between the Steinerian commentary and the Jungian reading39 of the Wedding: in both cases, the initiatory journey of Christian Rose-Croix expresses the “mystery of psychic metamorphosis” (NC, 263). The big difference comes from the way of thinking of Jung and Steiner, and their opposite attitude towards reality. From a Jungian perspective,40 one could perhaps qualify Steiner’s philosophical temperament as “extroverted” and that of Jung as “introverted” (this is moreover how he saw himself); indeed, the anthroposophist links his thought closely to real objects while the founder of depth psychology is above all concerned with his inner world. Steiner is an idealist in that the spiritual world has for him a character of truth and absolute in the same way as the objects which are in front of him, without possible contestation, while for Jung, nourished by Kant, thought partially derives from subjectivity, which places all metaphysics beyond the reach of human understanding and establishes an empirical approach to reality. Jung needs to look within himself for landmarks to evolve in his inner world, without resorting to metaphysics to name things outside of him; he tends to see in him realities which, for the extrovert, are external.
42 We can think in particular of biodynamic agriculture – the processes of decomposition, putr (...)
43 See the third stage of the conjunction described at the end of Carl Gustav Jung: Mysterium conjunct (...)
44 On the comparison of these paths, see Aurélie Choné: Rudolf Steiner, Carl Gustav Jung, Herman (...)
27 Steiner considers the mystical path (introverted attitude according to the Jungian typology) unsuited to the materialistic modern age, and considers the alchemical path (extroverted attitude according to the Jungian typology) which passes through the knowledge of nature, as the most appropriate today. today. Could this be the reaction of an extrovert who does not understand the other attitude? Jung also uses alchemy, but more in the psychological sense of an inner psychic transformation; he emphasizes the writings that translate external experiences into symbolic processes revealing the archetypes of the collective unconscious, which he wants to find in order to shed light on his journey and that of his patients. But if Jung seems to be more interested in the interior side (oratory) and Steiner in the operative side of alchemy42 (laboratory), the fact remains that the psychiatrist also integrates a much broader dimension through the notion of unus mundus43, and that the anthroposophist pays great attention to inner processes, emphasizing the passage from natural alchemy to the Science of the mind. Anthroposophy, which seeks to develop our perception of the supersensible world, and depth psychology, which aims to approach the Self in order to reach the totality of our being, have important similarities in the journey they offer towards greater freedom. and autonomy.
28 If Les Noces has caught the attention of such different thinkers, it is undoubtedly because this writing offers a fine example of a balanced appreciation between the two points of view. The oratory is as important there as the laboratory. There is both the experimental side (Tower of Olympus) and the importance of moral purification (weighing test, vault of Venus). Extroverts tend to make it a laboratory affair by denying the other side, while introverts stress the projection of psychic contents onto matter and make it a process of individuation, neglecting the experimental side which is very vague in the definitions of the materials, which vary from one to another. But the secret undoubtedly lies in the right balance between extroversion and introversion, science and faith, laboratory and oratory.
Assessment and posterity of the anthroposophical reception of Les Noces until today
29 All the arguments deployed in Steiner’s extremely dense Commentary combine to demonstrate that the Weddings are “an objective relationship of an authentic quest” (NC, 263). Steiner felt the need to give a commentary on the Wedding - rather than on the Fama or the Confessio - because this story contains a wealth of images and symbols which make visible, in the form of evocative imaginations, the passage from sensitive to supersensitive. This commentary aims to anchor Steiner's theosophy, which he calls anthroposophy, in the Rosicrucian tradition of esoteric Christianity. Steiner thus stands out from the Theosophical Society and Eastern initiation by proposing a “Rosicrucian initiation” adapted to modern man in that it brings together faith and science, knowledge and contemplation of nature. Starting from the Manifesto, he seeks to prove what he has asserted in previous conferences and to give greater authority to his words through the exegesis of the source text itself. In doing so, he presents himself as the successor to the Rosicrucian current, which is supposed to express the quintessence of the great previous religions, and therefore the cutting edge of all spiritual teachings.
30 His reception of Les Noces will find an important echo in the anthroposophical milieu, among students and close friends like Michael Bauer46 (1871-1929), who was a member of his esoteric School. Today, the Rosicrucian reference is still very present among anthroposophists. According to the Dutch writer Jelle van der Meulen, for example, Steiner was initiated by Christian Rose-Croix47. The links between Anthroposophy and Rosicrucianism have been studied by engineer Viktor Stracke (1903-1991) and physician Peter Selg (1963- )48. Les Noces gave rise to a new commentary by Bastiaan Baan, director of the seminary of the Fellowship of Christians in North America, and former Waldorf school teacher. Overall, the interpretation of Les Noces is the object of a deepening in two main directions: meditation50 and cosmology51.
52 The outer order of the Stella Matutina was known as the Mystic Rose or Order of the M.R. i (...)
53 Crispian Villeneuve: Rudolf Steiner in Britain: A Documentation of His Ten Visits, 1902‑25, vol. 1 (...)
54 The Table Round (Ordo Tabulae Rotundae) is a neo-Arthurian mystical order that Felkin also exported (...)
55 Zander: Anthroposophy in Deutschland. t. I, p. 844.
56 See the contribution of Sébastien Gregov in this volume.
31 We also mention the influence of Steiner on the English doctor Robert Felkin, who in 1903 created the magical order Stella Matutina (Morning Star)52 in England, a splinter group from the Golden Dawn, and on Neville Meakin53, a member of the Stella Matutina. They saw in him an authentic representative of the Rosicrucian tradition, the missing link in the chain of the Rose-Croix dating back to the 17th century. Known by the initials EOL (Ex oriente Lux), Grand Master of the neo-Arthurian Order Ordo Tabulae Rotundae54, Meakin met Steiner in 1910 and 1912, received the initiation of adeptus minor in the Chapter Mystica aeterna and embarked in 1911 for Constantinople, traveling in the footsteps of the pilgrimage described in the Fama Fraternitatis. Steiner's ideas on the real existence of Christian Rose-Croix and his Order, as well as on the different incarnations of Christian Rose-Croix, will influence Max Heindel (1865-1919), who was vice-president of theosophy of Adyar in California in 1904-1905 and student of the Esoteric School of Steiner in 1907-1908. In 1909 Heindel created the Rosicrucian Fellowship in California. Steiner would accuse him in 1913 of having plagiarized several of his lectures55. Finally, let us mention the obvious influence of the Steinerian reading of the Wedding on the Dutch Rosicrucian Jan van Rijckenborgh, a former disciple of Heindel who founded the Lectorium Rosicrucianum in the 1920s.
s/n 0670MDTR
190 bhp, 1,985 cc inline DOHC four-cylinder engine, two Weber 40 DCO/A3 carburettors, four-speed manual transmission, independent front suspension, live rear axle, hydraulic four-wheel drum brakes. Wheelbase: 2,250 mm (88.6")
- One of the most beautiful Ferrari sports racing cars ever built
- One of the finest examples in existence with known ownership and successful racing history
- Five Targa Florio entries and Winner of the Monte Pellegrino Hillclimb
- Last four-cylinder Ferrari sports racer, rarer than 250 TR and 250 GTO
In the 500 TRC, Ferrari developed what was to be one of the company’s most aesthetically beautiful, brilliantly engineered and efficient sports racing cars.
Following engineer Aurelio Lampredi’s departure from Ferrari in 1955, a new engineering team was formed for 1956, including Vittorio Jano, Alberto Massimino, Luigi Bellentani and the young Andrea Fraschetti. These highly skilled men soon came up with a new two-litre sports racing car: the 500 TR. This was the first Ferrari designated with the now legendary name “Testa Rossa.” The four-cylinder-engined type 500 TR was introduced in 1956 and was the successor to the 500 Mondial. Seventeen examples were built and became favourite sports racers for privateers the world over.
500 TRC
Half a year later the factory produced a new car, because the sports commission of the FIA issued new regulations. For the 1957 season the new Appendix C for modified sports cars took effect. The 500 TR was outlawed by the new rules, many of which concerned the bodywork. The windscreen now had to be symmetrical over the axis of the car, and width had to measure 100 cm with a height of at least 15 centimetres. A soft-top was required, and the gas tank capacity was to be 120 litres. A passenger door was mandated as well.
Engineers, mechanics and designers began a race against the clock. By the end of 1956, Ferrari announced the 500 TRC, a new model which adhered to all of the new FIA regulations.
The new model was assigned chassis Type 518 C and engine Type 131 C. Motor, gearbox and transmission were identical to the 500 TR. One of the primary differences between the TRC and the first Mondial, in addition to reduced weight, was the rear axle: a coil sprung rigid axle instead of the deDion variety. The two-litre engine reached its peak of performance in the TRC with 190 bhp.
More importantly, the chassis structure of the 500 TRC had been reinforced to increase rigidity. The front-end tubular frame members were further apart, which made it possible to mount the engine lower, thus lowering the centre of gravity of the whole car. This also allowed Pinin Farina to design an entirely new body that was lower by 10 centimetres, which was to be built by Scaglietti and is rightly regarded as one of the most beautiful and seductive Ferrari racing spiders ever built.
The Ferrari factory sold the TRC to private customers all over the world as a winning weapon in the sports car races. Several TRCs originally had two-tone paint, and not many were coloured the typical Ferrari racing red. The small group of 19 cars was produced within one year. Less than twelve months after its introduction, however, the 500 TRC was replaced by the 12-cylinder 250 Testa Rossa, which despite being more powerful was produced in greater numbers. As the last four-cylinder sports racing car, the 500 TRC truly marked the end of an era at Ferrari.
Chassis no. 0670 MDTR
The car on offer today is the 6th of these 19 total cars (17 500 TRCs and two 625 TRCs). Since it was built, it has been owned by a known succession of enthusiasts, the first two of which actively raced the car in period before the third owner and his family owned and maintained the car from 1966 to 1997 – more than three decades.
Chassis no. 0670 MDTR was sold new by the factory on 4 April, 1957 to first owner Bernardo Cammarata, a wealthy businessman and gentleman driver from Palermo, Sicily. Over the next decade, this gorgeous Ferrari was raced in Sicily up until 1966.
No fewer than five times was 0670 MDTR entered in the legendary Targa Florio, which alongside the Mille Miglia and Carrera Panamericana is certainly the most important open-road endurance racing event in history. In fact, seven years after its production, this 500 TRC still won the famous Monte Pellegrino hillclimb in Palermo, a race which the car had entered four times and performed in outstandingly every time. Some of the car’s greatest successes came with Mario Tropia of Sicily behind the wheel. Tropia, who went by the name “Caterpillar,” raced the car on loan from Cammarata and won two hillclimbs with the car in 1964 and in fact never placed lower than third overall.
Original owner Cammarata then sold the car to its second owner, the 36-year old Francesco Tagliavia, another Sicilian who continued to race it for the next three years, participating in several hillclimbs and adding to the car’s winning streak at Monte Pellegrino, where he won his class in 1965.
All told, of the 16 period races on record, 0670 MDTR finished all but two races and did not start one other. It won two hillclimbs outright and finished within the top three positions (overall and in class) a total of 11 times. All this, without ever being involved in a known accident in some of the most dangerous road races in history (its only two DNFs were due to the fact that Tagliavia was over the time limit and only completed 8 instead of 10 laps).
Italy’s pioneer Ferrari collector Giulio Dubbini, owner of the Diemme Caffé production company in Padua, realised the enormous potential of the 500 TRC and became the next owner in 1966. Dubbini campaigned 0670 MDTR over the next twenty years in historic events. The Ferrari remained in the ownership of the Dubbini family until the late 1990s – a remarkable period of over three decades. Historic racer Corrado Cupellini of Bergamo then took it over and for the next five years entered it in the Shell Ferrari Maserati Challenge race series in Europe.
The 500 TRC subsequently saw more than ten different racetracks in Belgium, Italy, England, Germany and France. In 2003 it was sold to Nick Colonna, who had Ferrari 0670 MDTR comprehensively restored and prepared for historic racing by Bert Skidmore’s The Intrepid Motorcar Company, Inc. of Sparks, Nevada at an approximate cost of over $470,000. It has also been shown on two occasions at the Palm Beach Cavallino Classic.
The car’s file includes FIA papers, Factory Assembly Sheets (Foglio di Montaggio), a letter written by the Ferrari factory in 1966, an original “Certificato di Proprietà” from the ACI (Automobile Club Italia), various period photos and restoration documentation.
The 500 TRC, with its clean and elegant lines, is regarded as one of the most beautiful sports racing Ferraris ever built. Chassis 0670 MDTR is a matching-numbers car and totally authentic. Its entire history is known and has been very carefully researched and documented by marque experts. Moreover, it is eligible for almost every historic event in the world, be it an open road, closed racecourse or manicured show field.
Some Ferraris may have achieved greater notoriety, but to the connoisseurs, none of the front-engined cars are more important and prestigious than the highly sophisticated four-cylinder 500 TRCs. Perfect aesthetics coupled with tremendous driving pleasure.
[Text from RM Auctions]
www.rmauctions.com/lots/lot.cfm?lot_id=664015
This Lego miniland-scale Ferrari 500 TRC Spider (1957 - Scaglietti), has been created for Flickr LUGNuts' 89th Build Challenge, - "Over a Million, Under a Thousand", - a challenge to build vehicles valued over one million (US) dollars, or under one thousand (US) dollars.
This particular vehicle was auctioned by the RM Auction house on Saturday, May 21, 2011, where it sold for €2,800,000 (US$3,050,600).
Baddesley Clinton is not one the grandest of houses, nor is it filled with rare works of art, but having been owned by one family, the Ferrers, since the 16th century and maintained largely intact and original, it is a rare example of the average early-modern home of the lesser gentry. Unlike such mansions as nearby Coughton Court, Baddesley Clinton is relatively small, even cozy, and one can easily imagine the life of the people who lived here. It is best known for being the home of the Jesuit Henry Garnet for almost 14 years, and the existence of several priest hides conceived and built by Nicholas Owen.
The Clintons settled here in the thirteenth century, when it was called just Baddesley, and added their name to the place. They were responsible for the digging of the moat that you see above. It was eventually sold in 1438 to John Brome, a wealthy lawyer, and the Bromes built most of the east and west sides of the house.
John Brome was the Under Treasurer of England but a Lancastrian, and when Henry VI was deposed in 1461 by the Yorkist claimant Edward IV, Brome lost all of his court appointments. He later quarreled with John Herthill, Steward to Richard "the Kingmaker", Earl of Warwick, and Herthill murdered him in 1468 on the porch of the Whitefriars Church in London. Brome's second son, Nicholas, who inherited the estate, eventually avenged his father's murder by killing Herthill in 1471.
Nicholas Brome seems to have had a taste for violence. According to Henry Ferrers, a later owner of the house, it was soon after inheriting Baddesley Clinton that Nicholas 'slew the minister of Baddesley Church findinge him in his plor (parlour) chockinge his wife under ye chinne, and to expiatt these bloody offenses and crimes he built the steeple and raysed the church body ten foote higher". He was pardoned for this killing by both the King and the Pope. Nicholas seems also to have developed a taste for building, and is thought to have been responsible for the building of much of the earliest part of the house. Baddesley Clinton passed into the hands of the Ferrers family in 1517, through the marriage of Nicholas Brome's daughter, Constance, to Sir Edward Ferrers.
The most interesting of the Ferrers is Henry Ferrers (1549-1633), the great-grandson of Sir Edward Ferrers, and contemporary with the times of the Gunpowder Plot. He inherited the property in 1564, and lived through the reigns of Edward VI, Mary I, Elizabeth I and James I, dying in the reign of Charles I. He carried out extensive building, including the wing that contains the Great Hall, as well as adding the Great Parlour above the existing entranceway. He also installed much oak paneling and mantels that are still there as well.
Henry Ferrers was an antiquarian, and spent a lifetime collecting historical information, much of which was later used by Sir William Dugdale in the 'Antiquities of Warwickshire'. This interest of his can be seen by the enormous amount of heraldic glass and devices throughout the house. He was trained in the law, and admitted to the Middle Temple in 1572. He may also have served a term as an MP for Cirencester in 1593.
After the death of Henry Ferrers, the fortunes of the Ferrers family fluctuated through periods of heavy taxation such as during the Civil War and in the early eighteenth century, followed by attempts by some generations to maintain and improve the property in better times. The last Ferrers in the direct male line, Marmion Edward Ferrers (1813-1884), was so poor that Lady Chatterton, the aunt of his wife Rebecca, and her husband, Edward Heneage Deering, had to come and live with him to share the expense. These two were only married because of a misunderstanding. It is said that Deering came to Lady Chatterly to ask permission to pay address to her niece, but she thought it was a proposal to her, and accepted. Deering, although she was old enough to be his mother, was too chivalrous to set the story straight!
The estate passed down through Marmion Edward Ferrer's nephew through several relatives, and it was Mr. Thomas Ferrers-Walker who eventually sold the house to the Government, after which it became part of the National Trust. The Ferrers Archive is kept at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford-upon-Avon.
Henry Ferrers was also a devout Catholic, but a cautious one and was never convicted for recusancy. He must have been aware of the activities of the Vaux sisters, who rented the house from him in the 1590's in order to secretly shelter Father Henry Garnet and other priests, and to be able to conduct catholic services. Soon after they rented the house, Anne Vaux had Nicholas Owen build secret hiding places, including one created out of the sewer and the moat.
A spectacular raid on Baddesley in October 1591 was recorded both by Father John Gerard in his Autobiography of an Elizabethan, and also by Father Henry Garnet in a letter to his Jesuit superior, Aquaviva. Several priests, including Garnet and Gerard, as well as lay assistants had risen early and were preparing to leave the house, when it was surrounded and all the approach roads blocked by pursuviants. The stable-boys, knowing that so many horses saddled and ready to go would be suspicious, armed themselves with farm implements and blocked the pursuviants attempt at violent entry. This bought some time for those inside the house, as the pursuviants had to resort to requests, and led them to believe that the lady of the house had not yet arisen. Those outside had to wait patiently, albeit not quietly, while those inside were quickly hiding away the priests, Catholic vestments, and all other signs of the presence of a Catholic priest, including the overturning of their mattresses so that the pursuviants could not feel the warmth.
The priests stood in the hiding place in the moat, ankle-deep in cold water for over four hours while the pursuviants tore through the house, although their attempts at intimidation seemed to have far outweighed their skills in searching. Anne Vaux said "here was a searcher pounding the walls in unbelievable fury, there another shifting side-tables, turning over beds. Yet, when any of them touched with their hand or foot the actual place where some sacred object was hidden, he paid not the slightest attention to the most obvious evidence of a contrivance."
The searchers turned up nothing, and eventually left after being paid off by Anne Vaux with twelve gold pieces. As Gerard later said, "Yes, that is the pitiful lot of Catholics when men come with a warrant ... it is the Catholics, not the men who send them, who have to pay. As if it were not enough to suffer, they have to pay for their suffering."
You can still inspect these hiding places today, and we must say they are not for those who are claustrophobic or faint of heart. Until you actually see them, it is hard to imagine the cramped, damp, dark and tomb-like conditions these priests endured.
The first of these is a lath and plaster hutch in the roof above a closet off the bedroom in the gatehouse block. It measures six feet three inches by four feet, and is three feet nine inches high. It contains two wooden benches and is lined with fine hair-plaster.
In the corner of the kitchen, where a garderobe once existed, you can see through to the medieval drain where the hiding place used by Father Gerard and Father Garnet was located. At the time, this could only be accessed through the garderobe shaft in the floor of the Sacristy above. A hiding space beneath the floor of the Library was accessed through the fireplace in the Great Parlour, and can now be viewed from the Moat Room. It was in the Library Room that Nicholas Brome was said to have murdered the priest, and it is reputed to be haunted.
For an excellent account of the priest holes and the work of Nicholas Owen at Baddesley Clinton, the article Elizabethan Priest Holes : III - East Anglia, Baddesley Clinton, Hindlip by Michael Hodgetts, and published in Recusant History, is a must read.
The house itself consists almost entirely of building done by either the Bromes in the fifteenth century or by Henry Ferrers in the sixteenth, and although much repair and alteration work has been carried out inside the house, the panelling, fireplaces and heraldic glass throughout the house all date from the work of Henry Ferrers.
Originally quadrangular in shape, the property today consists of only three blocks, the east including the gatehouse and the Great Parlour, the south containing the Hall, and the west containing the kitchen. The gatehouse and kitchen wing are of grey sandstone, whereas the Hall, which was reconstructed in the 18th century, is of brick.
The crenellated gatehouse is one of the house's most interesting features. The lower part with the gun ports was built by Nicholas Brome in the late fifteenth century, and is thought originally to have had a drawbridge. The upper part was re-formed by Henry Ferrers to accommodate the Great Parlour. The brick bridge was built in the early eighteenth century, and the crenelations added in the nineteenth century. The massive carved oak door in the gatehouse leading through to the courtyard dates from Nicholas Brome.
The present owners are still undertaking restoration work to enable all the documented priest hides and trapdoors to be made available for viewing, this work includes part of the moat tunnel complex that is presently plugged in order to prevent midges from penetrating into the Sacristy and bedrooms
Baddesley Clinton, although still a private dwelling was sold to the Government and passed to the National Trust in 1980 and opened to the public in 1982.
The above was copied from "The gunpowder plot" website.
Great to place to visit. If only there had been some sun!
Ricky “Horror” Olson of Motionless in White live at Starland Ballroom, Sayreville NJ. 12.11.14
Feature gallery on Music Existence: musicexistence.com/blog/2014/12/15/gallery-motionless-in-...
První zmínka o Svinovu pochází z roku 1265. Tehdy patřil k majetku velehradského kláštera. V letech 1573 až 1848 náležel ke klímkovickému panství. Původní zemědělské zaměření vsi se odrazilo ve výstavbě hospodářského dvora, který vznikl pravděpodobně v místech, kde se předpokládá existence starší zástavby. Ze samotného dvora se intaktně dochovala především kamenná sýpka obdélného půdorysu ze smíšeného kamenného a cihelného omítaného zdiva. Stavbu završuje sedlová střecha s ostrým sklonem, pokrytá dřevěným šindelem.
Uliční průčelí sýpky je zdůrazněno trojicí opěráků a prolomeno úzkými větracími otvory a dvěma liniemi obdélných okének s kovovými mřížemi. Ze západní strany je užší průčelí prolomeno novým vjezdem. Sýpka ve své východní části obsahuje v bývalém přízemí (nyní suterén) valeně zaklenutou místnost a nad ní v úrovni prvního patra obytnou místnost s hřebínkovými klenbami s výsečemi. Hlavní prostor sýpky je oddělen od krovu dřevěným trámovým záklopovým stropem. Krov a trámový strop v současnosti vykazují značné poškození hnilobou a jejich oprava představuje jednu z priorit památkové péče v Ostravě. Na východní straně se k sýpce pojí do svahu zasazený zděný klasicistní dvoupodlažní dům z počátku 19. století, v přízemí i v patře zaklenutý pruskými plackami. Podle zachovaného snímku kresby z roku 1929 protékala před sýpkou až do provedení regulace počátkem 20. let minulého století říčka Porubka. V místech před budovou dnešní základní školy přes ní byla po kamenném mostě vedena silnice spojující Bílovec a Klimkovice se Svinovem a Moravskou Ostravou.
Obě zmíněné stavby – sýpka i sousední dům – představují nejcennější a nejstarší stavební památky Svinova a dokládají vývoj Ostravska před obdobím industrializace. Sýpka bývá datována na konec 18. století, avšak její archaické stavební provedení, patrné v asymetrickém pojetí průčelí, v celkové kompozici nebo v klenbách přízemí a patra, umožňuje dataci posunout až na počátek 17. století, případně i o století dříve, neboť některé ze zmíněných principů by odpovídaly vzniku budovy již v 16. století. Musíme mít ovšem na paměti, že to může být výsledkem dlouhodobého přežívání zavedených a tradicí zavedených stavebních zvyklostí v daném místě. Právě tato stylová nejednoznačnost a absence písemných pramenů zatím nedovolují uvedené datování upřesnit. Památkově chráněná kamenná sýpka i sousední dům jsou patrné z nejdůležitějšího prostoru ve Svinově – z náměstí Dr. Brauna. Nejen z toho důvodu, ale i vzhledem k významu celku pro památkový fond regionu, představuje jejich citlivá
Flexaret VI Standard / Meopta Belar 80mm f3.5
Fijifilm Pro400H
Rollei Digibase C-41 RTU 25℃ 15min
EPSON GT-X980
“There are patterns which emerge in one's life, circling and returning anew, an endless variation of a theme”
― Jacqueline Carey, Kushiel's Chosen
Quorn.
The first European squatters and pastoralists arrived in the Quorn area in the 1850s but the town did not come into existence until 1875. It was named after Quorn in Leicestershire by Governor Jervois whose private secretary came from there. South Australian Railways chose the site for the town of Quorn and in 1878 the government sold the first blocks of land. In 1879 Quorn became the first terminus of the Great Northern Railway line from Port Augusta. The current station with its charming Dutch gables was built in 1916. However Quorn’s greatest period of importance as a railway centre was between 1917 and 1937 when it was the junction for both the western line to Perth and the northern line to Oodnadatta and Alice Springs. This importance continued during World War II when over 400 people in the town were employed by the railways as it was a major troop stop over point with the Country Women’s Association providing over 1 million meals to the servicemen. The establishment of a new standard gauge railway to Marree and the Leigh Creek coal fields west of the Flinders Ranges in 1956 saw the town decline. The various hotels in the main street located to service the needs of travelling rail passengers then became a movie set for several films including: The Sundowners, Sunday Too Far Away, Robbery under Arms, The Shiralee and more recently Gallipoli.
Quorn’s early development was similar to that of many SA towns. One of the first structures (1878) was a flour mill for the wheat farmers built by Mr Cowan. Mr Dunn the wealthy flour miller of Mt Barker built a second three storied flour mill in 1879. It was converted to a motel in the 1960s and is now a backpacker’s accommodation centre. Other early buildings were the Austral Hotel (1878), where many of us will stay, and the Criterion Hotel built in 1881 and the Transcontinental Hotel in 1878. The first National Bank opened in 1878, along with the Post Office, the Court House (1879) and Matthews Emporium (1886). The first church in town was a Methodist Church in 1880, followed by the Anglican (1880 replaced in 1897), Catholic (1883), the Salvation Army Hall in 1884(now a gallery) and the Lutheran Church in 1890. Three years after its founding, Quorn had a population of 540 and was the 19th largest town north of Adelaide! A reservoir was made for the railways and the town. Other important public town buildings were the Institute (1881) and the Town Hall (1907). A school started soon after the founding of the town and in 1909 it became a Higher Primary School and then in 1914 it became a High School. It was the first high school in the north of SA. Quorn continued to grow in importance once the railway was extended from Quorn through to Oodnadatta in 1891.
Colebrook Home in Quorn was established by the Australian Aborigines Mission. It began as a children’s home for Aboriginals in Oodnadatta in 1926 .In 1927 the home moved to Quorn with 12 children in residence. In 1933 the Mission got a new house, 2 miles outside Quorn and in 1935 the 30 resident children were sent to Magill for the summer holidays. This practice continued until 1940 when the children spent the summer holidays at Eden Hills. Following this, the Mission established Colebrook Children’s Home at Eden Hills. Among the children raised at Colebrook were several prominent Aboriginal leaders in SA including Lowitcha O’Donoghue, Faith Thomas and Ruby Ahchee( Hammond).
A Gandhi stencil in preparation in my workshop.
flickr.com/groups/constructingcoexistence/
Picture by Olivier Horen :
Worn out I stand,
Resolute but not oblivious to my impending defeat.
Lost, without a trace, like a culture long forgotten, as another brazenly destroys my existence.
"Self-destruction!" I have cried repeatedly, but my shoots no longer crawl up the impervious concrete.
I will wither away hopelessly, an insignificant remnant, no more than a pointless wrinkle in time.
Granada is synonymous with it's greatest monument, the Alhambra Palace. One of the greatest works of Islamic architecture in existence, the palace complex contains a series of richly decorated rooms and courtyards unparalled for their rich non-figurative decoration, representing the very best in Arab/Islamic art and craftsmanship.
Built in the mid 14th century the palace was home to the Nasrid Dynasty, the last Moorish rulers in Spain, prior to the final reconquest of los Reyes Catolicos, Ferdinand and Isabella. Following their victory in Granada the palace continued for some time as a royal residence, though some parts were lost in alterations and additions by suceeding generations, including Carlos V who built his unfinished Renaissance palace on part of the complex. After centuries of neglect the buildings were restored in the 19th century and are now celebrated as amongst the World's highest architectural achievements.
Most of the main rooms are open to the public, though some areas were closed for restoration on this most recent visit. The most significant areas are the Hall of the Ambassadors with it's fine wooden ceiling, the Courtyard of the Lions and the two breathtaking domed chambers that flank the courtyard with their spectacular domed 'stalactite' ceilings.
Jellyfish, also known sea jellies, are the medusa-phase of certain gelatinous members of the subphylum Medusozoa, which is a major part of the phylum Cnidaria.
Jellyfish are mainly free-swimming marine animals with umbrella-shaped bells and trailing tentacles, although a few are anchored to the seabed by stalks rather than being mobile. The bell can pulsate to provide propulsion for highly efficient locomotion. The tentacles are armed with stinging cells and may be used to capture prey and defend against predators. Jellyfish have a complex life cycle. The medusa is normally the sexual phase, which produces planula larvae; these then disperse widely and enter a sedentary polyp phase, before reaching sexual maturity.
Jellyfish are found all over the world, from surface waters to the deep sea. Scyphozoans (the "true jellyfish") are exclusively marine, but some hydrozoans with a similar appearance live in freshwater. Large, often colorful, jellyfish are common in coastal zones worldwide. The medusae of most species are fast-growing, and mature within a few months then die soon after breeding, but the polyp stage, attached to the seabed, may be much more long-lived. Jellyfish have been in existence for at least 500 million years, and possibly 700 million years or more, making them the oldest multi-organ animal group.
Jellyfish are eaten by humans in certain cultures. They are considered a delicacy in some Asian countries, where species in the Rhizostomeae order are pressed and salted to remove excess water. Australian researchers have described them as a "perfect food": sustainable and protein-rich but relatively low in food energy.
They are also used in research, where the green fluorescent protein used by some species to cause bioluminescence has been adapted as a fluorescent marker for genes inserted into other cells or organisms.
The stinging cells used by jellyfish to subdue their prey can injure humans. Thousands of swimmers worldwide are stung every year, with effects ranging from mild discomfort to serious injury or even death. When conditions are favourable, jellyfish can form vast swarms, which can be responsible for damage to fishing gear by filling fishing nets, and sometimes clog the cooling systems of power and desalination plants which draw their water from the sea.
Names
The name jellyfish, in use since 1796, has traditionally been applied to medusae and all similar animals including the comb jellies (ctenophores, another phylum). The term jellies or sea jellies is more recent, having been introduced by public aquaria in an effort to avoid use of the word "fish" with its modern connotation of an animal with a backbone, though shellfish, cuttlefish and starfish are not vertebrates either. In scientific literature, "jelly" and "jellyfish" have been used interchangeably. Many sources refer to only scyphozoans as "true jellyfish".
A group of jellyfish is called a "smack" or a "smuck".
Definition
The term jellyfish broadly corresponds to medusae, that is, a life-cycle stage in the Medusozoa. The American evolutionary biologist Paulyn Cartwright gives the following general definition:
Typically, medusozoan cnidarians have a pelagic, predatory jellyfish stage in their life cycle; staurozoans are the exceptions [as they are stalked].
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines jellyfish as follows:
A free-swimming marine coelenterate that is the sexually reproducing form of a hydrozoan or scyphozoan and has a nearly transparent saucer-shaped body and extensible marginal tentacles studded with stinging cells.
Given that jellyfish is a common name, its mapping to biological groups is inexact. Some authorities have called the comb jellies and certain salps jellyfish, though other authorities state that neither of these are jellyfish, which they consider should be limited to certain groups within the medusozoa.
The non-medusozoan clades called jellyfish by some but not all authorities (both agreeing and disagreeing citations are given in each case) are indicated with on the following cladogram of the animal kingdom:
Jellyfish are not a clade, as they include most of the Medusozoa, barring some of the Hydrozoa. The medusozoan groups included by authorities are indicated on the following phylogenetic tree by the presence of citations. Names of included jellyfish, in English where possible, are shown in boldface; the presence of a named and cited example indicates that at least that species within its group has been called a jellyfish.
Taxonomy
The subphylum Medusozoa includes all cnidarians with a medusa stage in their life cycle. The basic cycle is egg, planula larva, polyp, medusa, with the medusa being the sexual stage. The polyp stage is sometimes secondarily lost. The subphylum include the major taxa, Scyphozoa (large jellyfish), Cubozoa (box jellyfish) and Hydrozoa (small jellyfish), and excludes Anthozoa (corals and sea anemones). This suggests that the medusa form evolved after the polyps. Medusozoans have tetramerous symmetry, with parts in fours or multiples of four.
The four major classes of medusozoan Cnidaria are:
Scyphozoa are sometimes called true jellyfish, though they are no more truly jellyfish than the others listed here. They have tetra-radial symmetry. Most have tentacles around the outer margin of the bowl-shaped bell, and long, oral arms around the mouth in the center of the subumbrella.
Cubozoa (box jellyfish) have a (rounded) box-shaped bell, and their velarium assists them to swim more quickly. Box jellyfish may be related more closely to scyphozoan jellyfish than either are to the Hydrozoa.
Hydrozoa medusae also have tetra-radial symmetry, nearly always have a velum (diaphragm used in swimming) attached just inside the bell margin, do not have oral arms, but a much smaller central stalk-like structure, the manubrium, with terminal mouth opening, and are distinguished by the absence of cells in the mesoglea. Hydrozoa show great diversity of lifestyle; some species maintain the polyp form for their entire life and do not form medusae at all (such as Hydra, which is hence not considered a jellyfish), and a few are entirely medusal and have no polyp form.
Staurozoa (stalked jellyfish) are characterized by a medusa form that is generally sessile, oriented upside down and with a stalk emerging from the apex of the "calyx" (bell), which attaches to the substrate. At least some Staurozoa also have a polyp form that alternates with the medusoid portion of the life cycle. Until recently, Staurozoa were classified within the Scyphozoa.
There are over 200 species of Scyphozoa, about 50 species of Staurozoa, about 50 species of Cubozoa, and the Hydrozoa includes about 1000–1500 species that produce medusae, but many more species that do not.
Fossil history
Since jellyfish have no hard parts, fossils are rare. The oldest unambiguous fossil of a free-swimming medusa is Burgessomedusa from the mid Cambrian Burgess Shale of Canada, which is likely either a stem group of box jellyfish (Cubozoa) or Acraspeda (the clade including Staurozoa, Cubozoa, and Scyphozoa). Other claimed records from the Cambrian of China and Utah in the United States are uncertain, and possibly represent ctenophores instead.
Anatomy
The main feature of a true jellyfish is the umbrella-shaped bell. This is a hollow structure consisting of a mass of transparent jelly-like matter known as mesoglea, which forms the hydrostatic skeleton of the animal. 95% or more of the mesogloea consists of water, but it also contains collagen and other fibrous proteins, as well as wandering amoebocytes which can engulf debris and bacteria. The mesogloea is bordered by the epidermis on the outside and the gastrodermis on the inside. The edge of the bell is often divided into rounded lobes known as lappets, which allow the bell to flex. In the gaps or niches between the lappets are dangling rudimentary sense organs known as rhopalia, and the margin of the bell often bears tentacles.
Anatomy of a scyphozoan jellyfish
On the underside of the bell is the manubrium, a stalk-like structure hanging down from the centre, with the mouth, which also functions as the anus, at its tip. There are often four oral arms connected to the manubrium, streaming away into the water below. The mouth opens into the gastrovascular cavity, where digestion takes place and nutrients are absorbed. This is subdivided by four thick septa into a central stomach and four gastric pockets. The four pairs of gonads are attached to the septa, and close to them four septal funnels open to the exterior, perhaps supplying good oxygenation to the gonads. Near the free edges of the septa, gastric filaments extend into the gastric cavity; these are armed with nematocysts and enzyme-producing cells and play a role in subduing and digesting the prey. In some scyphozoans, the gastric cavity is joined to radial canals which branch extensively and may join a marginal ring canal. Cilia in these canals circulate the fluid in a regular direction.
Discharge mechanism of a nematocyst
The box jellyfish is largely similar in structure. It has a squarish, box-like bell. A short pedalium or stalk hangs from each of the four lower corners. One or more long, slender tentacles are attached to each pedalium. The rim of the bell is folded inwards to form a shelf known as a velarium which restricts the bell's aperture and creates a powerful jet when the bell pulsates, allowing box jellyfish to swim faster than true jellyfish. Hydrozoans are also similar, usually with just four tentacles at the edge of the bell, although many hydrozoans are colonial and may not have a free-living medusal stage. In some species, a non-detachable bud known as a gonophore is formed that contains a gonad but is missing many other medusal features such as tentacles and rhopalia. Stalked jellyfish are attached to a solid surface by a basal disk, and resemble a polyp, the oral end of which has partially developed into a medusa with tentacle-bearing lobes and a central manubrium with four-sided mouth.
Most jellyfish do not have specialized systems for osmoregulation, respiration and circulation, and do not have a central nervous system. Nematocysts, which deliver the sting, are located mostly on the tentacles; true jellyfish also have them around the mouth and stomach. Jellyfish do not need a respiratory system because sufficient oxygen diffuses through the epidermis. They have limited control over their movement, but can navigate with the pulsations of the bell-like body; some species are active swimmers most of the time, while others largely drift. The rhopalia contain rudimentary sense organs which are able to detect light, water-borne vibrations, odour and orientation. A loose network of nerves called a "nerve net" is located in the epidermis. Although traditionally thought not to have a central nervous system, nerve net concentration and ganglion-like structures could be considered to constitute one in most species. A jellyfish detects stimuli, and transmits impulses both throughout the nerve net and around a circular nerve ring, to other nerve cells. The rhopalial ganglia contain pacemaker neurones which control swimming rate and direction.
In many species of jellyfish, the rhopalia include ocelli, light-sensitive organs able to tell light from dark. These are generally pigment spot ocelli, which have some of their cells pigmented. The rhopalia are suspended on stalks with heavy crystals at one end, acting like gyroscopes to orient the eyes skyward. Certain jellyfish look upward at the mangrove canopy while making a daily migration from mangrove swamps into the open lagoon, where they feed, and back again.
Box jellyfish have more advanced vision than the other groups. Each individual has 24 eyes, two of which are capable of seeing colour, and four parallel information processing areas that act in competition, supposedly making them one of the few kinds of animal to have a 360-degree view of its environment.
Box jellyfish eye
The study of jellyfish eye evolution is an intermediary to a better understanding of how visual systems evolved on Earth. Jellyfish exhibit immense variation in visual systems ranging from photoreceptive cell patches seen in simple photoreceptive systems to more derived complex eyes seen in box jellyfish. Major topics of jellyfish visual system research (with an emphasis on box jellyfish) include: the evolution of jellyfish vision from simple to complex visual systems), the eye morphology and molecular structures of box jellyfish (including comparisons to vertebrate eyes), and various uses of vision including task-guided behaviors and niche specialization.
Evolution
Experimental evidence for photosensitivity and photoreception in cnidarians antecedes the mid 1900s, and a rich body of research has since covered evolution of visual systems in jellyfish. Jellyfish visual systems range from simple photoreceptive cells to complex image-forming eyes. More ancestral visual systems incorporate extraocular vision (vision without eyes) that encompass numerous receptors dedicated to single-function behaviors. More derived visual systems comprise perception that is capable of multiple task-guided behaviors.
Although they lack a true brain, cnidarian jellyfish have a "ring" nervous system that plays a significant role in motor and sensory activity. This net of nerves is responsible for muscle contraction and movement and culminates the emergence of photosensitive structures. Across Cnidaria, there is large variation in the systems that underlie photosensitivity. Photosensitive structures range from non-specialized groups of cells, to more "conventional" eyes similar to those of vertebrates. The general evolutionary steps to develop complex vision include (from more ancestral to more derived states): non-directional photoreception, directional photoreception, low-resolution vision, and high-resolution vision. Increased habitat and task complexity has favored the high-resolution visual systems common in derived cnidarians such as box jellyfish.
Basal visual systems observed in various cnidarians exhibit photosensitivity representative of a single task or behavior. Extraocular photoreception (a form of non-directional photoreception), is the most basic form of light sensitivity and guides a variety of behaviors among cnidarians. It can function to regulate circadian rhythm (as seen in eyeless hydrozoans) and other light-guided behaviors responsive to the intensity and spectrum of light. Extraocular photoreception can function additionally in positive phototaxis (in planula larvae of hydrozoans), as well as in avoiding harmful amounts of UV radiation via negative phototaxis. Directional photoreception (the ability to perceive direction of incoming light) allows for more complex phototactic responses to light, and likely evolved by means of membrane stacking. The resulting behavioral responses can range from guided spawning events timed by moonlight to shadow responses for potential predator avoidance. Light-guided behaviors are observed in numerous scyphozoans including the common moon jelly, Aurelia aurita, which migrates in response to changes in ambient light and solar position even though they lack proper eyes.
The low-resolution visual system of box jellyfish is more derived than directional photoreception, and thus box jellyfish vision represents the most basic form of true vision in which multiple directional photoreceptors combine to create the first imaging and spatial resolution. This is different from the high-resolution vision that is observed in camera or compound eyes of vertebrates and cephalopods that rely on focusing optics. Critically, the visual systems of box jellyfish are responsible for guiding multiple tasks or behaviors in contrast to less derived visual systems in other jellyfish that guide single behavioral functions. These behaviors include phototaxis based on sunlight (positive) or shadows (negative), obstacle avoidance, and control of swim-pulse rate.
Box jellyfish possess "proper eyes" (similar to vertebrates) that allow them to inhabit environments that lesser derived medusae cannot. In fact, they are considered the only class in the clade Medusozoa that have behaviors necessitating spatial resolution and genuine vision. However, the lens in their eyes are more functionally similar to cup-eyes exhibited in low-resolution organisms, and have very little to no focusing capability. The lack of the ability to focus is due to the focal length exceeding the distance to the retina, thus generating unfocused images and limiting spatial resolution. The visual system is still sufficient for box jellyfish to produce an image to help with tasks such as object avoidance.
Utility as a model organism
Box jellyfish eyes are a visual system that is sophisticated in numerous ways. These intricacies include the considerable variation within the morphology of box jellyfishes' eyes (including their task/behavior specification), and the molecular makeup of their eyes including: photoreceptors, opsins, lenses, and synapses. The comparison of these attributes to more derived visual systems can allow for a further understanding of how the evolution of more derived visual systems may have occurred, and puts into perspective how box jellyfish can play the role as an evolutionary/developmental model for all visual systems.
Characteristics
Box jellyfish visual systems are both diverse and complex, comprising multiple photosystems. There is likely considerable variation in visual properties between species of box jellyfish given the significant inter-species morphological and physiological variation. Eyes tend to differ in size and shape, along with number of receptors (including opsins), and physiology across species of box jellyfish.
Box jellyfish have a series of intricate lensed eyes that are similar to those of more derived multicellular organisms such as vertebrates. Their 24 eyes fit into four different morphological categories. These categories consist of two large, morphologically different medial eyes (a lower and upper lensed eye) containing spherical lenses, a lateral pair of pigment slit eyes, and a lateral pair of pigment pit eyes. The eyes are situated on rhopalia (small sensory structures) which serve sensory functions of the box jellyfish and arise from the cavities of the exumbrella (the surface of the body) on the side of the bells of the jellyfish. The two large eyes are located on the mid-line of the club and are considered complex because they contain lenses. The four remaining eyes lie laterally on either side of each rhopalia and are considered simple. The simple eyes are observed as small invaginated cups of epithelium that have developed pigmentation. The larger of the complex eyes contains a cellular cornea created by a mono ciliated epithelium, cellular lens, homogenous capsule to the lens, vitreous body with prismatic elements, and a retina of pigmented cells. The smaller of the complex eyes is said to be slightly less complex given that it lacks a capsule but otherwise contains the same structure as the larger eye.
Box jellyfish have multiple photosystems that comprise different sets of eyes. Evidence includes immunocytochemical and molecular data that show photopigment differences among the different morphological eye types, and physiological experiments done on box jellyfish to suggest behavioral differences among photosystems. Each individual eye type constitutes photosystems that work collectively to control visually guided behaviors.
Box jellyfish eyes primarily use c-PRCs (ciliary photoreceptor cells) similar to that of vertebrate eyes. These cells undergo phototransduction cascades (process of light absorption by photoreceptors) that are triggered by c-opsins. Available opsin sequences suggest that there are two types of opsins possessed by all cnidarians including an ancient phylogenetic opsin, and a sister ciliary opsin to the c-opsins group. Box jellyfish could have both ciliary and cnidops (cnidarian opsins), which is something not previously believed to appear in the same retina. Nevertheless, it is not entirely evident whether cnidarians possess multiple opsins that are capable of having distinctive spectral sensitivities.
Comparison with other organisms
Comparative research on genetic and molecular makeup of box jellyfishes' eyes versus more derived eyes seen in vertebrates and cephalopods focuses on: lenses and crystallin composition, synapses, and Pax genes and their implied evidence for shared primordial (ancestral) genes in eye evolution.
Box jellyfish eyes are said to be an evolutionary/developmental model of all eyes based on their evolutionary recruitment of crystallins and Pax genes. Research done on box jellyfish including Tripedalia cystophora has suggested that they possess a single Pax gene, PaxB. PaxB functions by binding to crystallin promoters and activating them. PaxB in situ hybridization resulted in PaxB expression in the lens, retina, and statocysts. These results and the rejection of the prior hypothesis that Pax6 was an ancestral Pax gene in eyes has led to the conclusion that PaxB was a primordial gene in eye evolution, and that the eyes of all organisms likely share a common ancestor.
The lens structure of box jellyfish appears very similar to those of other organisms, but the crystallins are distinct in both function and appearance. Weak reactions were seen within the sera and there were very weak sequence similarities within the crystallins among vertebrate and invertebrate lenses. This is likely due to differences in lower molecular weight proteins and the subsequent lack of immunological reactions with antisera that other organisms' lenses exhibit.
All four of the visual systems of box jellyfish species investigated with detail (Carybdea marsupialis, Chiropsalmus quadrumanus, Tamoya haplonema and Tripedalia cystophora) have invaginated synapses, but only in the upper and lower lensed eyes. Different densities were found between the upper and lower lenses, and between species. Four types of chemical synapses have been discovered within the rhopalia which could help in understanding neural organization including: clear unidirectional, dense-core unidirectional, clear bidirectional, and clear and dense-core bidirectional. The synapses of the lensed eyes could be useful as markers to learn more about the neural circuit in box jellyfish retinal areas.
Evolution as a response to natural stimuli
The primary adaptive responses to environmental variation observed in box jellyfish eyes include pupillary constriction speeds in response to light environments, as well as photoreceptor tuning and lens adaptations to better respond to shifts between light environments and darkness. Interestingly, some box jellyfish species' eyes appear to have evolved more focused vision in response to their habitat.
Pupillary contraction appears to have evolved in response to variation in the light environment across ecological niches across three species of box jellyfish (Chironex fleckeri, Chiropsella bronzie, and Carukia barnesi). Behavioral studies suggest that faster pupil contraction rates allow for greater object avoidance, and in fact, species with more complex habitats exhibit faster rates. Ch. bronzie inhabit shallow beach fronts that have low visibility and very few obstacles, thus, faster pupil contraction in response to objects in their environment is not important. Ca. barnesi and Ch. fleckeri are found in more three-dimensionally complex environments like mangroves with an abundance of natural obstacles, where faster pupil contraction is more adaptive. Behavioral studies support the idea that faster pupillary contraction rates assist with obstacle avoidance as well as depth adjustments in response to differing light intensities.
Light/dark adaptation via pupillary light reflexes is an additional form of an evolutionary response to the light environment. This relates to the pupil's response to shifts between light intensity (generally from sunlight to darkness). In the process of light/dark adaptation, the upper and lower lens eyes of different box jellyfish species vary in specific function. The lower lens-eyes contain pigmented photoreceptors and long pigment cells with dark pigments that migrate on light/dark adaptation, while the upper-lens eyes play a concentrated role in light direction and phototaxis given that they face upward towards the water surface (towards the sun or moon). The upper lens of Ch. bronzie does not exhibit any considerable optical power while Tr. cystophora (a box jellyfish species that tends to live in mangroves) does. The ability to use light to visually guide behavior is not of as much importance to Ch. bronzie as it is to species in more obstacle-filled environments. Differences in visually guided behavior serve as evidence that species that share the same number and structure of eyes can exhibit differences in how they control behavior.
Largest and smallest
Jellyfish range from about one millimeter in bell height and diameter, to nearly 2 metres (6+1⁄2 ft) in bell height and diameter; the tentacles and mouth parts usually extend beyond this bell dimension.
The smallest jellyfish are the peculiar creeping jellyfish in the genera Staurocladia and Eleutheria, which have bell disks from 0.5 millimetres (1⁄32 in) to a few millimeters in diameter, with short tentacles that extend out beyond this, which these jellyfish use to move across the surface of seaweed or the bottoms of rocky pools; many of these tiny creeping jellyfish cannot be seen in the field without a hand lens or microscope. They can reproduce asexually by fission (splitting in half). Other very small jellyfish, which have bells about one millimeter, are the hydromedusae of many species that have just been released from their parent polyps; some of these live only a few minutes before shedding their gametes in the plankton and then dying, while others will grow in the plankton for weeks or months. The hydromedusae Cladonema radiatum and Cladonema californicum are also very small, living for months, yet never growing beyond a few mm in bell height and diameter.
The lion's mane jellyfish, Cyanea capillata, was long-cited as the largest jellyfish, and arguably the longest animal in the world, with fine, thread-like tentacles that may extend up to 36.5 m (119 ft 9 in) long (though most are nowhere near that large). They have a moderately painful, but rarely fatal, sting. The increasingly common giant Nomura's jellyfish, Nemopilema nomurai, found in some, but not all years in the waters of Japan, Korea and China in summer and autumn is another candidate for "largest jellyfish", in terms of diameter and weight, since the largest Nomura's jellyfish in late autumn can reach 2 m (6 ft 7 in) in bell (body) diameter and about 200 kg (440 lb) in weight, with average specimens frequently reaching 0.9 m (2 ft 11 in) in bell diameter and about 150 kg (330 lb) in weight. The large bell mass of the giant Nomura's jellyfish can dwarf a diver and is nearly always much greater than the Lion's Mane, whose bell diameter can reach 1 m (3 ft 3 in).
The rarely encountered deep-sea jellyfish Stygiomedusa gigantea is another candidate for "largest jellyfish", with its thick, massive bell up to 100 cm (3 ft 3 in) wide, and four thick, "strap-like" oral arms extending up to 6 m (19+1⁄2 ft) in length, very different from the typical fine, threadlike tentacles that rim the umbrella of more-typical-looking jellyfish, including the Lion's Mane.
Desmonema glaciale, which lives in the Antarctic region, can reach a very large size (several meters). Purple-striped jelly (Chrysaora colorata) can also be extremely long (up to 15 feet).
Life history and behavior
Life cycle
Jellyfish have a complex life cycle which includes both sexual and asexual phases, with the medusa being the sexual stage in most instances. Sperm fertilize eggs, which develop into larval planulae, become polyps, bud into ephyrae and then transform into adult medusae. In some species certain stages may be skipped.
Upon reaching adult size, jellyfish spawn regularly if there is a sufficient supply of food. In most species, spawning is controlled by light, with all individuals spawning at about the same time of day; in many instances this is at dawn or dusk. Jellyfish are usually either male or female (with occasional hermaphrodites). In most cases, adults release sperm and eggs into the surrounding water, where the unprotected eggs are fertilized and develop into larvae. In a few species, the sperm swim into the female's mouth, fertilizing the eggs within her body, where they remain during early development stages. In moon jellies, the eggs lodge in pits on the oral arms, which form a temporary brood chamber for the developing planula larvae.
The planula is a small larva covered with cilia. When sufficiently developed, it settles onto a firm surface and develops into a polyp. The polyp generally consists of a small stalk topped by a mouth that is ringed by upward-facing tentacles. The polyps resemble those of closely related anthozoans, such as sea anemones and corals. The jellyfish polyp may be sessile, living on the bottom, boat hulls or other substrates, or it may be free-floating or attached to tiny bits of free-living plankton or rarely, fish or other invertebrates. Polyps may be solitary or colonial. Most polyps are only millimetres in diameter and feed continuously. The polyp stage may last for years.
After an interval and stimulated by seasonal or hormonal changes, the polyp may begin reproducing asexually by budding and, in the Scyphozoa, is called a segmenting polyp, or a scyphistoma. Budding produces more scyphistomae and also ephyrae. Budding sites vary by species; from the tentacle bulbs, the manubrium (above the mouth), or the gonads of hydromedusae. In a process known as strobilation, the polyp's tentacles are reabsorbed and the body starts to narrow, forming transverse constrictions, in several places near the upper extremity of the polyp. These deepen as the constriction sites migrate down the body, and separate segments known as ephyra detach. These are free-swimming precursors of the adult medusa stage, which is the life stage that is typically identified as a jellyfish. The ephyrae, usually only a millimeter or two across initially, swim away from the polyp and grow. Limnomedusae polyps can asexually produce a creeping frustule larval form, which crawls away before developing into another polyp. A few species can produce new medusae by budding directly from the medusan stage. Some hydromedusae reproduce by fission.
Lifespan
Little is known of the life histories of many jellyfish as the places on the seabed where the benthic forms of those species live have not been found. However, an asexually reproducing strobila form can sometimes live for several years, producing new medusae (ephyra larvae) each year.
An unusual species, Turritopsis dohrnii, formerly classified as Turritopsis nutricula, might be effectively immortal because of its ability under certain circumstances to transform from medusa back to the polyp stage, thereby escaping the death that typically awaits medusae post-reproduction if they have not otherwise been eaten by some other organism. So far this reversal has been observed only in the laboratory.
Locomotion
Jellyfish locomotion is highly efficient. Muscles in the jellylike bell contract, setting up a start vortex and propelling the animal. When the contraction ends, the bell recoils elastically, creating a stop vortex with no extra energy input.
Using the moon jelly Aurelia aurita as an example, jellyfish have been shown to be the most energy-efficient swimmers of all animals. They move through the water by radially expanding and contracting their bell-shaped bodies to push water behind them. They pause between the contraction and expansion phases to create two vortex rings. Muscles are used for the contraction of the body, which creates the first vortex and pushes the animal forward, but the mesoglea is so elastic that the expansion is powered exclusively by relaxing the bell, which releases the energy stored from the contraction. Meanwhile, the second vortex ring starts to spin faster, sucking water into the bell and pushing against the centre of the body, giving a secondary and "free" boost forward. The mechanism, called passive energy recapture, only works in relatively small jellyfish moving at low speeds, allowing the animal to travel 30 percent farther on each swimming cycle. Jellyfish achieved a 48 percent lower cost of transport (food and oxygen intake versus energy spent in movement) than other animals in similar studies. One reason for this is that most of the gelatinous tissue of the bell is inactive, using no energy during swimming.
Ecology
Diet
Jellyfish are, like other cnidarians, generally carnivorous (or parasitic), feeding on planktonic organisms, crustaceans, small fish, fish eggs and larvae, and other jellyfish, ingesting food and voiding undigested waste through the mouth. They hunt passively using their tentacles as drift lines, or sink through the water with their tentacles spread widely; the tentacles, which contain nematocysts to stun or kill the prey, may then flex to help bring it to the mouth. Their swimming technique also helps them to capture prey; when their bell expands it sucks in water which brings more potential prey within reach of the tentacles.
A few species such as Aglaura hemistoma are omnivorous, feeding on microplankton which is a mixture of zooplankton and phytoplankton (microscopic plants) such as dinoflagellates. Others harbour mutualistic algae (Zooxanthellae) in their tissues; the spotted jellyfish (Mastigias papua) is typical of these, deriving part of its nutrition from the products of photosynthesis, and part from captured zooplankton. The upside-down jellyfish (Cassiopea andromeda) also has a symbiotic relationship with microalgae, but captures tiny animals to supplement their diet. This is done by releasing tiny balls of living cells composed of mesoglea. These use cilia to drive them through water and stinging cells which stun the prey. The blobs also seems to have digestive capabilities.
Predation
Other species of jellyfish are among the most common and important jellyfish predators. Sea anemones may eat jellyfish that drift into their range. Other predators include tunas, sharks, swordfish, sea turtles and penguins. Jellyfish washed up on the beach are consumed by foxes, other terrestrial mammals and birds. In general however, few animals prey on jellyfish; they can broadly be considered to be top predators in the food chain. Once jellyfish have become dominant in an ecosystem, for example through overfishing which removes predators of jellyfish larvae, there may be no obvious way for the previous balance to be restored: they eat fish eggs and juvenile fish, and compete with fish for food, preventing fish stocks from recovering.
Symbiosis
Some small fish are immune to the stings of the jellyfish and live among the tentacles, serving as bait in a fish trap; they are safe from potential predators and are able to share the fish caught by the jellyfish. The cannonball jellyfish has a symbiotic relationship with ten different species of fish, and with the longnose spider crab, which lives inside the bell, sharing the jellyfish's food and nibbling its tissues.
Main article: Jellyfish bloom
Jellyfish form large masses or blooms in certain environmental conditions of ocean currents, nutrients, sunshine, temperature, season, prey availability, reduced predation and oxygen concentration. Currents collect jellyfish together, especially in years with unusually high populations. Jellyfish can detect marine currents and swim against the current to congregate in blooms. Jellyfish are better able to survive in nutrient-rich, oxygen-poor water than competitors, and thus can feast on plankton without competition. Jellyfish may also benefit from saltier waters, as saltier waters contain more iodine, which is necessary for polyps to turn into jellyfish. Rising sea temperatures caused by climate change may also contribute to jellyfish blooms, because many species of jellyfish are able to survive in warmer waters. Increased nutrients from agricultural or urban runoff with nutrients including nitrogen and phosphorus compounds increase the growth of phytoplankton, causing eutrophication and algal blooms. When the phytoplankton die, they may create dead zones, so-called because they are hypoxic (low in oxygen). This in turn kills fish and other animals, but not jellyfish, allowing them to bloom. Jellyfish populations may be expanding globally as a result of land runoff and overfishing of their natural predators. Jellyfish are well placed to benefit from disturbance of marine ecosystems. They reproduce rapidly; they prey upon many species, while few species prey on them; and they feed via touch rather than visually, so they can feed effectively at night and in turbid waters. It may be difficult for fish stocks to re-establish themselves in marine ecosystems once they have become dominated by jellyfish, because jellyfish feed on plankton, which includes fish eggs and larvae.
As suspected at the turn of this century, jellyfish blooms are increasing in frequency. Between 2013 and 2020 the Mediterranean Science Commission monitored on a weekly basis the frequency of such outbreaks in coastal waters from Morocco to the Black Sea, revealing a relatively high frequency of these blooms nearly all year round, with peaks observed from March to July and often again in the autumn. The blooms are caused by different jellyfish species, depending on their localisation within the Basin: one observes a clear dominance of Pelagia noctiluca and Velella velella outbreaks in the western Mediterranean, of Rhizostoma pulmo and Rhopilema nomadica outbreaks in the eastern Mediterranean, and of Aurelia aurita and Mnemiopsis leidyi outbreaks in the Black Sea.
Some jellyfish populations that have shown clear increases in the past few decades are invasive species, newly arrived from other habitats: examples include the Black Sea, Caspian Sea, Baltic Sea, central and eastern Mediterranean, Hawaii, and tropical and subtropical parts of the West Atlantic (including the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and Brazil).
Jellyfish blooms can have significant impact on community structure. Some carnivorous jellyfish species prey on zooplankton while others graze on primary producers. Reductions in zooplankton and ichthyoplankton due to a jellyfish bloom can ripple through the trophic levels. High-density jellyfish populations can outcompete other predators and reduce fish recruitment. Increased grazing on primary producers by jellyfish can also interrupt energy transfer to higher trophic levels.
During blooms, jellyfish significantly alter the nutrient availability in their environment. Blooms require large amounts of available organic nutrients in the water column to grow, limiting availability for other organisms. Some jellyfish have a symbiotic relationship with single-celled dinoflagellates, allowing them to assimilate inorganic carbon, phosphorus, and nitrogen creating competition for phytoplankton. Their large biomass makes them an important source of dissolved and particulate organic matter for microbial communities through excretion, mucus production, and decomposition. The microbes break down the organic matter into inorganic ammonium and phosphate. However, the low carbon availability shifts the process from production to respiration creating low oxygen areas making the dissolved inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus largely unavailable for primary production.
These blooms have very real impacts on industries. Jellyfish can outcompete fish by utilizing open niches in over-fished fisheries. Catch of jellyfish can strain fishing gear and lead to expenses relating to damaged gear. Power plants have been shut down due to jellyfish blocking the flow of cooling water. Blooms have also been harmful for tourism, causing a rise in stings and sometimes the closure of beaches.
Jellyfish form a component of jelly-falls, events where gelatinous zooplankton fall to the seafloor, providing food for the benthic organisms there. In temperate and subpolar regions, jelly-falls usually follow immediately after a bloom.
Habitats
Most jellyfish are marine animals, although a few hydromedusae inhabit freshwater. The best known freshwater example is the cosmopolitan hydrozoan jellyfish, Craspedacusta sowerbii. It is less than an inch (2.5 cm) in diameter, colorless and does not sting. Some jellyfish populations have become restricted to coastal saltwater lakes, such as Jellyfish Lake in Palau. Jellyfish Lake is a marine lake where millions of golden jellyfish (Mastigias spp.) migrate horizontally across the lake daily.
Although most jellyfish live well off the ocean floor and form part of the plankton, a few species are closely associated with the bottom for much of their lives and can be considered benthic. The upside-down jellyfish in the genus Cassiopea typically lie on the bottom of shallow lagoons where they sometimes pulsate gently with their umbrella top facing down. Even some deep-sea species of hydromedusae and scyphomedusae are usually collected on or near the bottom. All of the stauromedusae are found attached to either seaweed or rocky or other firm material on the bottom.
Some species explicitly adapt to tidal flux. In Roscoe Bay, jellyfish ride the current at ebb tide until they hit a gravel bar, and then descend below the current. They remain in still waters until the tide rises, ascending and allowing it to sweep them back into the bay. They also actively avoid fresh water from mountain snowmelt, diving until they find enough salt.
Parasites
Jellyfish are hosts to a wide variety of parasitic organisms. They act as intermediate hosts of endoparasitic helminths, with the infection being transferred to the definitive host fish after predation. Some digenean trematodes, especially species in the family Lepocreadiidae, use jellyfish as their second intermediate hosts. Fish become infected by the trematodes when they feed on infected jellyfish.
Relation to humans
Jellyfish have long been eaten in some parts of the world. Fisheries have begun harvesting the American cannonball jellyfish, Stomolophus meleagris, along the southern Atlantic coast of the United States and in the Gulf of Mexico for export to Asia.
Jellyfish are also harvested for their collagen, which is being investigated for use in a variety of applications including the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.
Aquaculture and fisheries of other species often suffer severe losses – and so losses of productivity – due to jellyfish.
Products
Main article: Jellyfish as food
In some countries, including China, Japan, and Korea, jellyfish are a delicacy. The jellyfish is dried to prevent spoiling. Only some 12 species of scyphozoan jellyfish belonging to the order Rhizostomeae are harvested for food, mostly in southeast Asia. Rhizostomes, especially Rhopilema esculentum in China (海蜇 hǎizhé, 'sea stingers') and Stomolophus meleagris (cannonball jellyfish) in the United States, are favored because of their larger and more rigid bodies and because their toxins are harmless to humans.
Traditional processing methods, carried out by a jellyfish master, involve a 20- to 40-day multi-phase procedure in which, after removing the gonads and mucous membranes, the umbrella and oral arms are treated with a mixture of table salt and alum, and compressed. Processing makes the jellyfish drier and more acidic, producing a crisp texture. Jellyfish prepared this way retain 7–10% of their original weight, and the processed product consists of approximately 94% water and 6% protein. Freshly processed jellyfish has a white, creamy color and turns yellow or brown during prolonged storage.
In China, processed jellyfish are desalted by soaking in water overnight and eaten cooked or raw. The dish is often served shredded with a dressing of oil, soy sauce, vinegar and sugar, or as a salad with vegetables. In Japan, cured jellyfish are rinsed, cut into strips and served with vinegar as an appetizer. Desalted, ready-to-eat products are also available.
Biotechnology
The hydromedusa Aequorea victoria was the source of green fluorescent protein, studied for its role in bioluminescence and later for use as a marker in genetic engineering.
Pliny the Elder reported in his Natural History that the slime of the jellyfish "Pulmo marinus" produced light when rubbed on a walking stick.
In 1961, Osamu Shimomura extracted green fluorescent protein (GFP) and another bioluminescent protein, called aequorin, from the large and abundant hydromedusa Aequorea victoria, while studying photoproteins that cause bioluminescence in this species. Three decades later, Douglas Prasher sequenced and cloned the gene for GFP. Martin Chalfie figured out how to use GFP as a fluorescent marker of genes inserted into other cells or organisms. Roger Tsien later chemically manipulated GFP to produce other fluorescent colors to use as markers. In 2008, Shimomura, Chalfie and Tsien won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work with GFP. Man-made GFP became widely used as a fluorescent tag to show which cells or tissues express specific genes. The genetic engineering technique fuses the gene of interest to the GFP gene. The fused DNA is then put into a cell, to generate either a cell line or (via IVF techniques) an entire animal bearing the gene. In the cell or animal, the artificial gene turns on in the same tissues and the same time as the normal gene, making a fusion of the normal protein with GFP attached to the end, illuminating the animal or cell reveals what tissues express that protein—or at what stage of development. The fluorescence shows where the gene is expressed.
Aquarium display
Jellyfish are displayed in many public aquariums. Often the tank's background is blue and the animals are illuminated by side light, increasing the contrast between the animal and the background. In natural conditions, many jellies are so transparent that they are nearly invisible. Jellyfish are not adapted to closed spaces. They depend on currents to transport them from place to place. Professional exhibits as in the Monterey Bay Aquarium feature precise water flows, typically in circular tanks to avoid trapping specimens in corners. The outflow is spread out over a large surface area and the inflow enters as a sheet of water in front of the outflow, so the jellyfish do not get sucked into it. As of 2009, jellyfish were becoming popular in home aquariums, where they require similar equipment.
Stings
Jellyfish are armed with nematocysts, a type of specialized stinging cell. Contact with a jellyfish tentacle can trigger millions of nematocysts to pierce the skin and inject venom, but only some species' venom causes an adverse reaction in humans. In a study published in Communications Biology, researchers found a jellyfish species called Cassiopea xamachana which when triggered will release tiny balls of cells that swim around the jellyfish stinging everything in their path. Researchers described these as "self-propelling microscopic grenades" and named them cassiosomes.
The effects of stings range from mild discomfort to extreme pain and death. Most jellyfish stings are not deadly, but stings of some box jellyfish (Irukandji jellyfish), such as the sea wasp, can be deadly. Stings may cause anaphylaxis (a form of shock), which can be fatal. Jellyfish kill 20 to 40 people a year in the Philippines alone. In 2006 the Spanish Red Cross treated 19,000 stung swimmers along the Costa Brava.
Vinegar (3–10% aqueous acetic acid) may help with box jellyfish stings but not the stings of the Portuguese man o' war. Clearing the area of jelly and tentacles reduces nematocyst firing. Scraping the affected skin, such as with the edge of a credit card, may remove remaining nematocysts. Once the skin has been cleaned of nematocysts, hydrocortisone cream applied locally reduces pain and inflammation. Antihistamines may help to control itching. Immunobased antivenins are used for serious box jellyfish stings.
In Elba Island and Corsica dittrichia viscosa is now used by residents and tourists to heal stings from jellyfish, bees and wasps pressing fresh leaves on the skin with quick results.
Mechanical issues
Jellyfish in large quantities can fill and split fishing nets and crush captured fish. They can clog cooling equipment, having disabled power stations in several countries; jellyfish caused a cascading blackout in the Philippines in 1999, as well as damaging the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in California in 2008. They can also stop desalination plants and ships' engines.
We were waiting to see "A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence," the third in Swedish director Roy Andersson's trilogy and dark existential tragicomedy about "what it means to be human" that started with "Songs from the Second Floor" more than a decade ago.
Negronis at Fresco provided the perfect Wisconsin Film Festival attitude adjustment before showtime downstairs in the Capitol Theater.
Exterior view of the Adviserate, office building for Sir Charles D. Belgraves (1926-1957) in Manama circa 1952.
(The sole purpose for the existence of this government department was to serve the adviser to the government of Bahrain, Sir Charles D. Belgrave therefore after Belgrave's retirement in 1957 and the subsequent abolishment of his office the Adviserate ceased to exist)
1. The fact or state of existing; being.
2. The fact or state of continued being; life: our brief existence on Earth.
3.
a. All that exists: sang the beauty of all existence.
b. A thing that exists; an entity.
4. A mode or manner of existing: scratched out a meager existence.
5. Specific presence; occurrence: The Geiger counter indicated the existence of radioactivity.
Synonyms: existence, actuality, being
These nouns denote the fact or state of existing: laws in existence for centuries; an idea progressing from possibility to actuality; a point of view gradually coming into being.
Antonym: nonexistence